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FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 




Photograph by Harris & Ewing 



ALBERT I 
King of Belgium 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 



BY 
MARY R. PARKMAN 

Author of "Her sts of To-Day," "Heroines 
of Service," etc. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH 
PHOTOGRAPHS 




NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1919 






Copyright, 1919, by 
The Centuby Co. 



Published, March, 1919 



MAR 24 1919 

©CLA5L2801 



To C. W. 

Whose generous assistance and 
exacting criticism made pos- 
sible the preparation 
of these sketches 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



The Champion op Honor: King Albert op Bel- 
gium 3 

The Hero op the Marne : Marshall Jopfre . . 27 

The Chevalier op Flight : Captain Guynemer . 47 

"Le Patron": Marshall Foch 75 

The ' ' Tiger ' ' as Man op Victory : Premier Clem- 

enceau 99 

The Man Behind the Guns : David Lloyd George 123 

Crusaders op the War 

I. The Liberator op Bagdad : General Maude 151 

II. The Deliverer op Jerusalem: General 

Allenby 179 

The Spirit op Garibaldi: Victor Emanuel and 

His Armies 203 

"The Big Chief": General Pershing . . . 229 

The Chivalry of the Sea : Admiral Beatty . . 257 

The Champion op Peace : President Wilson . . 285 

I 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Albert I, King of Belgium Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Joseph-Jacques-Cesaire Joffre, Marshal of France . 32 

The late Georges Guynemer, French Ace ... 64 

Marshal Ferdinand Foch 88 

Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France .... 112 

David Lloyd George, Premier of Great Britain . . 136 

Sir Frederic Stanley Maude, the late Lieutenant- 

General 168 

General Sir Edmund Allenby 192 

Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy 216 

General John Joseph Pershing 240 

Admiral Sir David Beatty 272 

Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States . 296 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR: 
KING ALBERT OF BELGIUM 



"If it is necessary for us to resist an invasion of our soil, that 
duty will find us armed and ready to make the greatest sacri- 
fices. ... I have faith in our destinies. A country which de- 
fends itself wins the respect of all, and cannot perish." 

King Albert of Belgium. 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

AT first it did not seem as if Destiny had 
picked him out for a king. His older 
brother was the heir presumptive, and nobody 
dreamed that a lad so vigorous would not live to 
reign. Prince Albert, therefore, was permitted 
to go quietly and happily along through his child- 
hood without "the fierce light which beats upon 
a throne" dazzling or bewildering his young spirit. 
He was born in April, 1875, in the palace of the 
Rue de la Regence in Brussels, but of all the royal 
houses where he spent part of his time, he loved 
the chateau of Amerois best. It was beautiful 
living on a hilltop, with a quaint old town that 
seemed like a story-book village nestling at its 
foot, and the ancient Ardennes forest for a play- 
ground. The terrace was a free, skyey place, 
where by day he could look out across the green 
valley of the Semois to the distant pine-covered 
hills, and where at night he could in a moment 

3 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

slip far away from the world into a wonderful 
tent of stars. 

The days seemed made for delight in the splen- 
did park of the chateau, where one could ramble 
over the hillside, cooled by the spray of silver 
streams cascading down to the valley, or loiter 
and dream in the green and gold paradise among 
the friendly trees. Within doors, too, life was 
full of charm. There were the great halls with 
pictures of people, his own people — kings and 
princes about whom his mother told him wonder- 
ful stories. But when he was still a little boy 
he learned to look upon the library where his 
father loved to spend his days as the best place of 
all. Here one could in a moment through the 
magic of a book find wings for his spirit and slip 
away to distant lands or far-away times where 
there were all sorts of interesting people and 
things to think about. 

But there were many real people coming and 
going all the time, who made him think and wonder 
too. There was his uncle, the King, who often 
used to look at him and his brother in a strange, 
dark way that filled him with awe. ' l The one who 
rules a nation has many cares,' ' his father ex- 
plained. "Besides, your uncle still grieves over 

4 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOE 

the loss of his boy. He may think it is strange 
that I have two tall, strong boys, while his only 
son was not permitted to grow up to take his place 
as king. ' ' But most of their friends — princes and 
counts, not only of Belgium but also royal cousins 
from other countries — seemed to find life one 
happy holiday. 

Perhaps Prince Albert would have taken it for 
granted that the world was made for enjoyment 
if he had not seen very early another, darker side 
even at the forest chateau. There were poor, un- 
happy people, many of them, who came to their 
door with tales of trouble and want. He often 
saw his mother's eyes fill with tears as she talked 
to these people, and he knew that she never turned 
any one away without help. But still he wondered 
about it all. It was strange that some children 
should have everything and others have nothing 
at all. 

He went one day to his father with his question. 
"It does n't seem right that so many people should 
have to beg for what they need from others who 
have so much more than enough/ ' he said. 
"Isn't there some way that all can have a fair 
chance to help themselves?" 

The Count of Flanders looked up from his book 

5 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

and regarded the boy thoughtfully. A man of 
many gifts, he had, because of growing deafness, 
given up his claim to the throne and all part in 
public affairs. His books were the chief joy and 
solace of his days. 

"You are wondering about a thing that has 
puzzled many wise heads and kind hearts for a 
long time," he said. "It has always been a world 
of rich and poor." 

"Yet," insisted the Prince, "that doesn't prove 
that it always must be so, does it? Surely we 
might make things a little better. ' ' 

i i Yes, my boy, that is what the King is working 
for all the time — to build up trade that will make 
Belgium more prosperous," his father replied. 

"Perhaps I can help, too, one of these days," 
said Albert. 

This talk set him to thinking. Surely a prince 
was in honor bound to serve his people in every 
way. "A prince must be one who is able and 
ready to lead," he said to himself. "Otherwise 
he has no excuse for being, nor has loyalty any 
meaning. I must set about learning the things 
that will make me know how best to be useful to 
my country. ' ' 

* * I want to read the books that tell about wealth 

6 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

and poverty, and the ways of managing the affairs 
of a country in the best way," he said one day 
to his tutor. 

"I suppose you refer to political economy and 
sociology," replied the teacher. "I was planning 
to introduce you to those serious sciences when 
you are a little older." 

"I think I am ready now," said the Prince. 

So it was that the boy began early to think about 
the subjects which claimed much of his serious 
study in later years. Of course he knew he was 
to be a soldier— all princes were born to the army 
—but there would be time for much besides sol- 
diering. However, when at sixteen he was ready 
to enter the Belgian Military School, his life had 
suddenly changed. His older brother, Prince 
Baudouin, had died, and as heir to the throne he 
found that his training had become a matter of 
special concern. The King, himself, presented 
him to his teachers and classmates, and his speech 
of introduction was a great ordeal, for Leopold 
II, tall, commanding, and much given to unex- 
pected shafts of wit, was an awe-inspiring person 
even to those of his own family. 

However, Prince Albert soon won a place for 
himself among his fellows, as one of them. It 

7 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

did not take them long to perceive that the tall, 
lanky youth, who did not know what to do with 
his newly acquired inches or his hands and feet, 
was as shy as themselves; and that, moreover, 
he was a genuinely good fellow both in the class- 
room and on the playground. In trying to put 
the awkward boy at his ease, they forgot to stand 
in awe of the future king. 

The Belgian Military School was a thoroughly 
democratic institution. In the case of only a 
crack regiment or two were the officers members 
of the nobility. A uniform did not carry social 
prestige, and, since the army was notoriously un- 
derpaid, there was little inducement for ambitious 
youths to adopt a military career. Besides, no- 
body took the service very seriously. A neutral 
country like Belgium was by its treaties absolved 
from the necessity of being prepared to protect 
itself, people said. 

The soldiers were recruited in a very curious 
fashion — by a draft from which any one who drew 
a bad number might get his release by paying for 
a substitute. Only the very poorest could not, 
by borrowing or otherwise, muster enough money 
to secure exemption from a service that would 
encroach upon their best earning years. The 

8 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

ranks of the privates, then, were filled by the 
patriotic few who did not believe in the substitute 
system, and the unfortunate many, who were so 
poor that they had been willing, as the officers 
said, ' ' to sell their skin. ' ' For these latter, Prince 
Albert did not share the contempt of his mates, 
and he treated all the men with a uniform friend- 
liness which showed that even in his thought he 
made no distinction. 

"The men are in most cases no more to blame 
for their poverty than they are for our abominable 
system of recruiting, ' ' he said. "If I am ever 
king I shall see that Belgium has a real army 
that rests on the service of all her sons. A nation 
must be able to defend itself in order to respect 
itself and to win the respect of others.' ' 

King Leopold II had been striving valiantly to 
bring about this reform, in spite of the indifference 
of the great mass of the people. His very last 
act was to sign a law that went far toward bring- 
ing about a better order of things, and King Al- 
bert's first work after coming to the throne was 
to carry his plans to completion by introducing 
general military service. 

"When the people stand shoulder to shoulder 
they will know each other better," said Prince 

9 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

Albert to himself, "and they will feel that they 
are all Belgians, forgetting the differences between 
Flemings and Walloons.' ' 

For little Belgium is as a nation very young, 
having been created in 1830 by international poli- 
tics to help maintain the balance of power. Its 
population is made up of two distinct races — the 
Walloons, a Latin people speaking French; and 
the Flemings, a branch of the Teutonic family 
whose tongue is much like that of the Dutch. 
French was the official language of the country, 
and for a long time the Flemish speech and ways 
were regarded as a mark of inferiority; for, while 
the Flemings outnumbered the Walloons, they be- 
longed for the most part to the humbler classes. 
With the growth of industry and commerce, how- 
ever, many of this despised race rose to wealth and 
influence, and, discovering that they belonged to 
a people quite as old and honorable as the haughty 
Walloons, they demanded equal chance for the 
preservation of their language and traditions. 
This rivalry grew; and when King Albert began 
his reign it was commonly said that there were 
no Belgians, only Walloons and Flemings. 

"I must from the first be the King of all my 

10 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

people," he said; "only in that way can I help 
them to feel that we are truly one nation. ' ' 

So it was that when, in 1909, King Albert ad- 
dressed his parliament for the first time, he took 
the oath both in Flemish and French. As the 
last words sounded through the noble Belgian 
Chamber: "I swear to myself and to the coun- 
try to fulfil scrupulously my duties, and to conse- 
crate all my forces and all my life to the service 
of our native land" — the people gathered there 
were exalted, thrilled. It was the first time that 
the Flemish tongue had been heard in that place, 
but it was not so much of that they were thinking 
now as of their king himself. Of course they 
might have known he would do it; had he not 
as prince always done what was fair and right 
in little things and great? Albert was every inch 
a king, and his reign would be both good and 
glorious, they thought, as they looked at the tall 
figure, the fair, noble face, and earnest, kindly 
blue eyes. "Vive le Roi! Vive Albert!' 9 the 
shout went up on every side, and there was heart- 
felt affection as well as loyalty in the cry. 

As a prince, Albert had endeared himself to 
the people by his efforts to improve the condition 

11 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

of the poor. His interest in problems of political 
economy and social service had grown and borne 
fruit. i ' The rich and great can take care of them- 
selves,' ' he used to say; "it must be my task to 
help the poor to help themselves." He made a 
journey to America to learn about conditions of 
workers in the new world; in particular, under 
the friendly guidance of James J. Hill, he made 
a serious study of railroads. In England, dis- 
guised as a newspaper reporter, he lived for a 
time trying to glean some knowledge of the con- 
ditions under which the shipbuilders and fisher- 
men worked. 

"I never see a machine or a motor without 
wanting to know the what and how of it," he once 
said. In following up this native interest, he 
gained an astonishing practical knowledge of the 
construction of ships, automobiles, and airplanes. 
He could on occasion mend his own machine or 
act as his own chauffeur. And knowing machines 
gave him something that he longed to possess 
— a real understanding of the men who must do 
the machine work of the world. 

Not content with these efforts to know his own 
people, the Prince sought to get some personal 
knowledge of the savages of the Congo Free State 

12 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

who were dependent on Belgium. For, since 
Leopold II had provided Stanley with the means 
of exploring this vast territory of central Africa, 
it had come under the absolute control of the 
King, and he in turn had willed his interest to 
his country. "I must know about that part of my 
job as King of Belgium," said Albert to himself, 
determined to see for himself the condition of 
the savages, who, it was said, were grossly ill- 
treated by native taskmasters, put in control by 
the Belgian rubber merchants. 

In 1909, therefore, Albert set out for Africa 
and spent three months traversing the dense 
forests and tropical jungles of that savage coun- 
try, walking in all some fifteen hundred miles. 
Everywhere the blacks gathered about in happy 
excitement to see the "Tall Man, Breaker of 
Stones," as they called him. "I am not the 
King," he said; "I cannot do everything. But 
I have come here because I want to know you, 
and find out what we in Belgium can do to help 
you." 

The day of Prince Albert's return to his coun- 
try was an occasion of great rejoicing. The 
people of every party vied with each other in 
doing honor to the Prince who had been prepar- 

13 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

ing himself to rule by learning how to serve. 

The Prince's marriage, nine years before the 
Congo trip, had also been a time of public jubila- 
tion. ... On a visit to Munich he had become 
acquainted with Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria, 
daughter of a man to whom the ability to serve 
his people meant more than the power and place 
he had inherited from his royal forebears. A fa- 
mous oculist who spent his days in a hospital, 
Duke Charles Theodor had brought up his two 
daughters to feel that there is nothing more royal 
than service. Both had passed through the regu- 
lar hospital training as nurses, and Elizabeth had, 
moreover, taken the full medical course. The 
young Belgian prince was at once drawn to this 
family whose ideas- of kingly privileges were so 
like his own; and it was not long before Belgium 
was thrilled by the news that their prince was 
to marry Princess Elizabeth. 

"Was there ever a more beautiful royal ro- 
mance !" they said; and, when they saw their 
future queen, fair, dainty and appealing, — "Was 
there ever a lovelier princess !" For all felt at 
once that she was quite the fairy-book heroine — 
"good as she was beautiful''; and who could 
doubt that the romance would have the correct 

14 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

fairy-book ending: "They lived happy ever 
after"! 

Any one who saw King Albert on his coronation 
day, riding at the head of his staff, would have 
said, looking from the noble, commanding figure 
in the general's uniform to the fine, earnest face, 
"He will be a king indeed — in peace or in war." 
And any one who saw the carriage drawn by six 
horses — quite in the fairy-book manner — where 
rode their beloved queen and the two young 
princes, Leopold and Charles, with the King's 
mother, the Countess of Flanders, would have said 
that there was nothing wanting in the happiness 
of the royal family. 

Among King Albert's brother monarchs who 
accompanied him on that gala day was Wilhelm 
of Hohenzollern ; and again in April, 1910, the 
German Emperor made a point of visiting Belgium 
to assure the people of his warm regard : 

"Full of amiable sympathy, I, in common with 
all Germany, observe the surprising success which 
the Belgian people has won in all the domains 
of commerce and industry. . . . May the reign of 
your Majesty spread happiness and prosperity 
amongst your royal house and among your people. 
This is the profound wish of my heart, with which 

15 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

I cry, Long live their Majesties, the King and 
Queen of the Belgians !" 

When the German army entered Brussels four 
years later, they found copies of this speech posted 
on every side; but these were, of course, only 
annoying "scraps of paper,' ' which were soon 
torn down and thrust out of sight. 

King Albert had, two years before the German 
invasion, been warned by one of his royal kinsmen 
that the Kaiser did not intend to regard the treaty 
guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium, but that 
he was making plans to attack France through 
that country. This warning made it clear that 
Belgium, in spite of the solemn pledge of the great 
nations, might need in desperate earnest an army 
of defense ; but King Albert 's plans for its organ- 
ization were only realized in part when the storm 
broke. On August 2, 1914, the King received the 
German ultimatum, demanding that Belgium al- 
low the Imperial army free passage through its 
territory on penalty of being regarded as an 
enemy. 

Now, in a moment, the heroic character of king 
and people was revealed to the world. To the 
great nation whose minister had just declared that 
their treaty was a mere "scrap of paper' ' which 

16 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

they would naturally disregard since "necessity 
knows no law," the little defenseless country sent 
this reply: "The German ultimatum has caused 
the Belgian people deep and painful astonishment ; 
and Belgium refuses to believe that her independ- 
ence can only be preserved at the cost of violating 
her neutrality. ' ' 

When, on that fateful day of August, 1914, 
King Albert, the champion of honor, stood before 
his parliament, there was a moment of suspense. 
Would the different parties stand together in this 
dark hour ? Would the soldier-king have a united 
country at his back? As the King looked about 
him at the representatives of the people his words 
rang out manfully : 

"If a stranger should violate our territory he 
will find all the Belgians gathered around their 
Sovereign, who will never betray his constitutional 
oath. I have faith in our destinies. A country 
which defends itself wins the respect of all, and 
cannot perish. God will be with us." 

For a moment there was a hush and then a great 
rallying cry. Belgium was one in its resolution 
to fight for its honor to the last. Party rivalry 
was forgotten; and the saying "Flemish and 
Walloon are only Christian names ; Belgian is our 

17 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

family name" proved more than idle words. 

It was impossible for the Germans to realize 
how any intelligent people could be so foolish as 
to stand out for an idea — for a mere word, like 
honor — when every instinct of prudence and com- 
mon sense bade them submit to the nation that 
had the power to make good its threats. 

"Oh, these poor, stupid Belgians !" cried the 
German minister with tears in his eyes. "Why 
don't they get out of the way! I know what it 
will be. I know the German army. It will be like 
laying a baby on the track before a locomotive ! ' ' 

The world knows how bravely the hastily mob- 
ilized, half-equipped little army fought at Liege; 
how, as the shield of France and of civilization, 
they held back the invading host until the Allies 
were able to organize their forces for defense. 
Hoping against hope that help would come in time 
to save Brussels, they fought with the strength 
of desperation. Then the King decided to with- 
draw the armed force from both Brussels and 
Louvain, in order to save if possible their historic 
buildings and monuments from destruction. At 
Antwerp a last stand was made. 

Think of what that tragic retreat meant to the 
King who had dreamed of leading a peaceful na- 

18 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

tion into ways of prosperity and contentment. 
Behind him he saw fields of golden grain trampled 
under foot, homes burned, churches destroyed, 
women and children homeless and helpless. Those 
who saw his face in those days knew that his heart 
was heavy with the sorrows of all his people. 

For a brief breathing space Antwerp was 
spared; and then the Germans, failing to take 
Paris, fell back on the Belgian city for the con- 
solation of a minor success. Then it was that 
King Albert retreated to the tiny corner of land 
near the sea-coast that was for four years all that 
remained of free Belgium. Here in that land of 
dikes and dunes, they opened the sluice gates, 
letting in the sea to help stay the advance of the 
enemy. And for four years the brave Belgians 
kept their line in the flooded country, holding 
back 200,000 Germans and guarding the coast pas- 
sage to Calais. 

Can you picture the staunch, uncomplaining 
little Belgians at their posts amid mud and water, 
wading up to their knees in passing from one line 
of defense to another? Of course digging in was 
impossible. They selected a spot of high ground, 
such as a railroad embankment, and made them- 
selves barricades of sand bags, which had to be 

19 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

rebuilt again and again as they were scattered 
by the enemy fire or melted down by the rain. 
After a man had been plunging about for three 
or four hours bringing sand for parapets and 
reeds for camouflage his clothes became so 
weighted with mud that he could scarcely move. 
His heart within him, too, must have been heavy 
indeed as he thought of his home destroyed, his 
harvest for which he had toiled seized by the Ger- 
mans, his family scattered — cold and hungry, per- 
haps, at that very moment. All that he could see 
as he looked about him was a ghostly gray land 
of flood and mist, with a farm or two rising here 
and there like half-submerged islands. This was 
all that remained to Belgians of their smiling, 
fertile country. Yet King Albert's soldiers were 
always cheerful. 

" There is only one thing that counts," said a 
Belgian officer, "to stand by our king until victory 
comes. For win we must. . . . Did they show you 
the site of that German villa on the beach which 
covered a cemented platform for a gun that could 
have raked Nieuport? That place was planned 
strategically and built long before the war — at a 
time the Kaiser was congratulating us on our 
prosperity. Do you think that the war-makers 

20 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

will find that there is no god but brute force?" 

In the spirit that says, "We await the end," the 
Belgians rallied about their leader who shared 
their fortunes from first to last. Many stories 
are told of his visits to the advance lines, of his 
heartening words to the soldiers, of the way he 
had been known to seize the gun and drop into 
the place of a man who had been hit. He never 
left his army or the bit of Belgian soil that re- 
mained to him except for brief visits to the leaders 
of the Allied forces in France. 

And Queen Elizabeth never left his side except 
for flying visits to her children in England. The 
"bonne petite reine," (good little queen), as the 
people call her, was from the first in charge of 
ambulance and hospital work at the front. Daily 
she visited the Ocean Ambulance, comforting and 
cheering the sick and wounded as well as directing 
the nurses. 

1 i One can see the hand of Providence in my early 
training that prepared me to meet this need, ■ ' she 
said simply. 

A little summer villa between the sand dunes 
and the sea at the fishing village of La Panne was 
for months the home of the King and Queen. 
Here they were together when the King was not 

21 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

at his headquarters or with his troops. With 
hostile airplanes circling overhead and cannon 
ceaselessly booming in the distance, there was 
never a time when they could, in the sound of the 
eternal wash of the waves, forget the tragedy of 
the present hour. 

Slowly but surely, however, the scene changed 
on that dismal Belgian front. Above the gray 
flooded waste masses of waving reeds sprang up, 
where gulls, ducks, and other water birds hovered 
about. Kindly Nature strove to reclaim the war- 
blasted land even while the work of destruction 
went on. And man, too, had wrought changes. 
Foot-bridges were laid across the water separat- 
ing the various lines of defense, and wonderful 
camouflage screens of reeds covered the roads and 
the stations of the machine guns. The men, too, 
had developed a hardihood of body and mind that 
was proof against discomforts and difficulties. 

A famous cartoonist made a drawing showing 
King Albert standing amid the ruins of his coun- 
try, confronted by the Kaiser who taunted him 
in this wise: "You see you have lost every- 
thing !" "Not my soul!" replied the Belgian 
King. . . . Even in the darkest days when Bel- 
gium seemed utterly at the mercy of the invaders, 

22 



THE CHAMPION OF HONOR 

who carried off her treasures, destroyed her means 
of industry, put to death many of her people and 
deported many more to work in the land of the 
oppressor, — even then the unconquerable soul of 
the nation was marching on to a sure triumph. 

For the conscience of the world was with Bel- 
gium, and all the free peoples of the earth were 
aroused. Thousands of men from across the sea 
came to take up the battle. The King who had 
stood as the champion of honor was the leader, 
not only of his own brave nation, but of a mighty 
host from many lands. Victory was sure. 

On November 22, 1918, King Albert entered 
Brussels at the head of his army, followed by 
French, English and American troops. Flowers 
were thrown in his way. The joy of the people 
knew no bounds ; it seemed as if the dawn of peace 
and the great day of freedom of the nations had 
come. The bells of Belgium could peal out from 
her steeples, ringing out the sad time of cruelty 
and oppression, ringing in the new day when there 
should be no fear that even the chimes of her 
churches would be seized to make cannon for the 
enemy. 

As the King rode by on horseback with his 
two young sons — the Crown Prince in khaki and 

23 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

the Count of Flanders as a midshipman — a father 
lifted his little boy to his shoulder that he might 
see over the surging crowd. 

"This is a great day, my son," he said, "but I 
remember a greater. It was the day the King 
stood before the representatives of the people and, 
speaking for them, said that come what might, 
Belgium would be faithful to her word and the 
trust of the nations. That was the real moment 
of victory." 



24 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE: 
MARSHALL JOFFRE 



Give us a name to stir the blood 
With a warmer glow and a swifter flood,— 
A name like the sound of a trumpet, clear, 
And silver-sweet, and iron-strong, 
That calls three million men to their feet, 
Ready to march, and steady to meet 
The foes who threaten that name with wrong, — 
A name that rings like a battle-song, — 
* I give you F ranee 1 

Henry Van Dyke. 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

WE are told that a certain man who feared 
that his ambition might sleep never to 
wake, bade his servant say each morning as he 
let the light of the new day into his bed-room, 
"Remember that you have great things to accom- 
plish !" Most of us know how easy it is for the 
many little things that make up our every day 
lives to crowd out all thought of the big things 
that we hope to do some time. We realize that 
we need many reminders and much urging to 
arouse the sleepy will within. 

But the boy who grew to be the great general 
that all the world honors as the savior of France 
— Marshal Joffre, the Hero of the Marne — needed 
no one calling from without to say, "Be strong; 
be ready ! Your country will need you some day. ' ' 
There was a voice within that was never silent 
saying, "There is work to be done. Be ready !" 

Joseph Joffre's wide blue eyes were steady and 
thoughtful. "He never seems to have time for 
any fun," complained one of his school-mates. 

27 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

"You can't tell anything about him," said an- 
other. "There was never such a fellow for hold- 
ing his tongue !" 

Young Joffre certainly had the habit of silence. 
When a boy is the oldest of eleven children and 
knows that he has been chosen from among them all 
to go to a school where officers for the army are 
trained, he knows that the business of command- 
ing his own days is a serious matter. 

His father, Gilles Joffre, was a cooper who was 
well known and respected in that countryside of 
southern France where vineyards cover every 
sunny slope. Years after when one of the wine 
merchants wished to give the highest praise to 
a cooper, he would say, "That is a barrel as good 
as Gilles Joffre used to make." It was as if one 
said of a violin, "It is a Stradl" 

There came a day in 1867 when the cooper took 
his son, then an awkward lad of fifteen, to a school 
in Paris. As he turned to go, leaving him to the 
new life in the strange, big world, he gave Joseph 
a long look. There was every question in his 
eyes. If the boy's steady blue ones did not give 
the answer sought, the firm grasp in which he took 
his father's work-worn hand was more eloquent 
than any words could have been. 

28 



THE HERO OF THE MAENE 

Paris was the gayest city in all the world at 
that time when the Emperor, Napoleon III, was 
trying to make his reign seem great and splendid 
by every sort of extravagance and display. It 
was hard to believe that the carefree days and the 
nights brilliant with fetes could ever come to an 
end. Life was surely made for enjoyment. Even 
in the school for civil and military engineers 
where Joseph Joffre was a student the holiday 
spirit often threatened to interfere with the serious 
concerns of the days of study. All the glitter of 
the gayest capital in Europe could not, however, 
lure the cooper's son from his appointed tasks. 

There is a story that when he was a very small 
school-boy he had often been known to build a 
wall of books about him on his desk to shut away 
the merry faces of his companions when they 
threatened to be more interesting than his arith- 
metic and drawing. In these days in Paris, how- 
ever, there was no need of building any sort of 
material barricade about his study table. 

"It would have been a bold fellow who would 
have thought of laying siege to Joffre when he 
was intent on a problem. There was something 
about him that made one think of an impregnable 
fortress/ ' said a retired officer who had been at 

29 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

the Polytechnic when the great general was a 
student there. 

There came a day when the thought of the peo- 
ple of Paris turned as in a moment from trifles 
and business and gayety to the forts about the 
city. The Prussians were at the gates; the gay 
capital was plunged in all the horrors of a siege. 
Joffre, then a lad of eighteen, served as junior 
subaltern in one of the forts. He fought bravely 
through the siege by the side of other brave 
Frenchmen but he had to suffer with them the 
grief of seeing his beloved country defeated and 
forced to give up her fair provinces of Alsace 
and Lorraine together with a vast sum of money 
to add to the menacing power of the enemy. 

Now the companions of the silent hard-working 
subaltern began to see that his devotion to long 
mathematical problems was not without result. 
A certain awe-inspiring Field-Marshal stopped 
one day before the section of the fortifications that 
had been constructed under that quiet young offi- 
cer's direction. 

"I congratulate you, Captain !" he exclaimed in 
a burst of unaccustomed enthusiasm. Joffre J s 
serious dreams had taken shape in stronger walls 

30 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

for Paris, and the young engineer of twenty-four 
had been made a captain. 

Captain Joff re went on with his work as a builder 
of defenses, now about Paris, now in the Pyrenees, 
now in Madagascar or in China. Wherever his 
country sent him he pitched his tent and worked 
upon her fortifications and entrenchments as if 
life held nothing else for him. 

"My brother was always lost in thought,' ' said 
his sister. As the child's play had been lost in 
the study of the ambitious boy, so now the ambi- 
tions of the man were lost in the love of his work 
for its own sake. 

One summer while spending a brief vacation 
with his father, he made a journey to a famous 
fort which he fell to examining with the eager in- 
terest of the expert. The corporal of the battery 
viewed with angry concern the behavior of the 
stranger in civilian dress. 

"He is a German spy!" he exclaimed, and 
promptly ordered his arrest. Captain Joffre, too 
intent on the problems that had challenged his 
attention to make any protest, suffered himself 
to be led before the officer in charge, where his 
identity was soon made evident. 

31 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

"Why did you not tell the corporal who you 
were?" he was asked on his return home. 

"I was thinking of the fort," he replied simply. 

All this time Joseph Joffre was in training for 
his days of generalship, building defences against 
defeat by his thorough preparedness. While he 
planned fortifications and laid foundations for 
heavy guns that should withstand the assaults of 
the enemies of his country, he was unconsciously 
fortifying himself to meet emergencies by learn- 
ing to recognize opportunities when they appeared, 
as they so often do, disguised as difficulties and 
failures. And his secret was only that of hard 
work. Some one has said, * ' Three-fourths of any 
fact is the act that is in It." Joffre's success in 
mastering facts lay always in his capacity for 
instant, instinctive, and untiring effort. 

Have you heard the story of the conquest of 
Timbuktu, the mysterious fortified city near the 
southern border of the Sahara desert which was 
for many years the centre of the native trade in 
gum, rubber, gold and ivory? But the white men 
of many nations who braved the dangers of Cen- 
tral Africa to barter beads, bright colored cloth, 
and various articles of iron and steel for these 
products of the land did not dare to penetrate the 

32 




© Moffett S 

JOSEPH- JACQUES-CESAIRE JOFFRE 

Marshal of France 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

country as far as Timbuktu. Their commerce was 
at best uncertain and hazardous. 

The French longed to plant a colony in Africa 
that should make trade safe so that the people of 
the world might enjoy some of the gifts that Na- 
ture had hidden away in the unexplored Dark 
Continent. It was certain that this could be done 
only by conquering Timbuktu, the stronghold of 
the hostile, treacherous tribes. 

An expedition was put in command of Colonel 
Bonnier, a brilliant, dashing officer who was in 
every way the ideal figure of a conquering hero. 
He chose Commandant Joffre to lead the support- 
ing force of a thousand men who were to furnish 
reserves and bring along the provisions and am- 
munition. "JofTre is steady and prudent; we 
know we can depend on him," said the leader. 

There came a day when a hunted remnant of 
Colonel Bonnier 's men fled to join Joffre's small 
band. Their leader had been overwhelmed by a 
sudden attack that found him unprepared, and he, 
with eleven of his officers, had been slain. The 
panic-stricken survivors thought only of retreat 
and escape, but Joffre quietly took command and 
led a successful march through desert waste and 
jungle, bristling with enemies, to Timbuktu. Out 

33 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

of a company of a thousand men, two-thirds of 
whom were porters and laborers, together with 
the survivors of the first expedition, Joffre or- 
ganized a fighting unit who forged ahead with 
a morale that spelled success, ready at any mo- 
ment to forestall sudden assaults and to meet 
the enemy in battle array. "One may surprise, 
but to be surprised is simply criminal," he said. 

They tell us that during this time he went for 
days without sleep. One of his eyes, was, more- 
over, stung by a poisonous insect and became ter- 
ribly inflamed, but even that did not compel him 
to relax his watchfulness. 

"How can I direct my troops blindfolded V ■ 
cried Joffre when the doctor of the party declared 
that he might lose his sight if he did not wear a 
bandage. 

"Then you must put on blue glasses/ ' ordered 
the doctor. 

"I will when I find a pair growing by the way," 
said Joffre. 

Do you believe that "there is a Providence that 
shapes our ends," or do you prefer to think that 
a blind Chance is responsible for the wonderful 
things that happen? The glasses were found by 
the way. A package that had been sent to one 

34 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

of the officers of the party contained a pair of 
blue spectacles which probably saved the leader's 
brave blue eyes from total blindness. Look at 
any good picture of the Marshal and you will see 
that a film veils the left eye. That tells the story 
of the injury and his narrow escape. 

On February 12, 1894, Timbuktu, called "the 
mysterious/ ' fell before Commandant JofYre who 
was within the month made Lieutenant Colonel. 
All the world knew that the French flag was fly- 
ing over the dreaded stronghold of the fiercest of 
African tribes, but few could have told you any- 
thing about the quiet leader who had turned defeat 
into victory. He did not have the dash that seizes 
the fancy of the crowd and he never talked about 
himself. He was content to let his deeds speak. 

"Well, Gilles, is your son a general ?" the neigh- 
bors would say to the old cooper. 

"No, but he 's a colonel, ' ' was the staunch reply. 

Then, one day in 1901, the little town of Rivesal- 
tes could say with the proud cooper, "My son is 
a general ! ' ' 

He was not a "big, brass general* ' whose glitter 
of uniform and important manner blared out "See 
the conquering hero comes !" whenever he ap- 
peared. The humble neighbors of that town in 

35 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

the Pyrenees who knew how to judge the simple, 
enduring things of life — the ways of the ripening 
harvest, the coming of autumn to the mountains, 
and the power of hard-working men to toil on, 
trusting that the future would reward faithful 
effort — felt that this leader, who went on as quietly 
with his studies as he had when a subaltern, would 
be a commander that the country could trust in 
its hour of need. It was one such unlettered but 
understanding man, a sergeant who had served 
under Joffre in the Far East, who said at the 
time that General Joffre was made Commander- 
in-Chief of the French army, "When Joffre is in 
command there is no need to worry. Success is 
assured. That man Joffre is a veritable wolf- 
trap for the enemy." 

What would have supported the people of 
France through the terrible days of September, 
1914, when the German army was sweeping on 
towards Paris and Joffre 's forces were falling 
back in retreat if they had not had this faith, 
firm but silent, in "the man who never spoke/ ' 
as the quiet General was often called? 

Those were days of cruel suspense when the 
French army was day by day giving ground, 
precious soil of France, to the mercy of the in- 

36 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

vader. Think of the distress of the people in the 
towns and villages whose homes were destroyed 
by cannon. Picture the anxiety of the people of 
Paris, of all those who could do nothing but wait 
and hope. Can you imagine the suspense of the 
army, Joffre's own soldiers, when day after day 
the order came to retreat, still to retreat? 

Those who saw General Joffre in those days 
knew as they met his deep, steady gaze that he 
felt the distress of all the people as his own, but 
his look of quiet power was unchanged. In reply 
to the question of one of his staff he said in his 
customary calm, even tones: 

"I mean to deliver the big battle in the most 
favorable conditions, at my own time and on the 
ground I have chosen. If necessary, I shall con- 
tinue to retreat. I shall bide my time. No con- 
sideration whatever will make me alter my plans. ' ' 

It seemed that the strength and confidence of 
the leader were communicated as the very breath 
of power to his men. They kept their faith in 
their general and in victory in the midst of ap- 
parent defeat. "Papa Joffre" would never fail 
them. 

At last the moment came for which Joffre had 
been planning. He had by his retreat led the 

37 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

German armies too far ahead of their supply bases. 
All eagerness for the final stroke they bounded 
forward, each command striving to be the first 
to enter Paris. They forgot that ' ' an army moves 
on its stomach," and that guns without ammuni- 
tion are so many straws. They thought that 
nothing could hold back their invincible troops. 
Joffre's day had dawned. He knew that the Ger- 
mans were weary from the long marches, that 
they were sustained only by the intoxication of 
success. He knew that his million men, unpre- 
pared and unorganized as compared with the mil- 
lion and a half soldiers of the Kaiser, were yet in 
a position to strike with confidence in the victory. 

On the morning of September 5, 1914, the word 
was sent along the ' ' far-flung battle-line ' ' that the 
retreat was at an end. All was busy, determined 
preparation for the great battle for which they 
had waited and prayed. Everywhere along the 
front was read the Order of the Day, and it was 
as if leader and men were clasping hands in 
mutual understanding and solemn pledge. 

"At the moment of engaging a battle on which 
the fate of the country hangs, it is necessary to 
remind every one that the time has passed for 
looking backward. Every effort must be made to 

38 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

attack and to drive back the enemy. The hour 
has come to advance at any cost, and to die where 
you stand rather than give way." 

For four days and nights the battle raged. Try 
to picture the scenes along the front. Battalion 
after battalion of picked German troops were 
thrust forward in close formation as if sheer head- 
long force must win everywhere. Then see the 
ranks mowed down by the French machine guns 
and cannon and the rifles of men who were fighting 
that their beloved France might live. When, on 
the evening of September 9, the Kaiser was com- 
pelled to sign the order for a general retreat of 
his armies, the Battle of the Marne had been won 
and the hope of Germany that Paris could be 
taken and the French conquered by an irresistible 
onslaught before the surprised nations had chance 
to pull themselves together for proper defense, 
was dashed to the ground. The turning-point had 
come and the tide had changed. The Battle of 
the Marne will forever rank among the great de- 
cisive battles of the world. 

Picture the people of Paris who had been wait- 
ing breathless for Joffre's hour. There were the 
old men who could do nothing but hope and pray, 
leaving the battle to the young men at the front. 

39 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

There were the women taking up quietly the work 
of their husbands and brothers, while their hearts 
were hushed in the suspense of longing for news 
of their loved ones and the triumph of France. 
There were children looking up to the white faces 
of their mothers in wonder and dumb questioning. 
— What had suddenly happened to the world of 
sunshine and happy work and play? 

A woman wearing black for her only son had 
been kneeling with two little girls in the church 
of the Madeleine. As she came out on the portico 
she pushed back her veil and looked about her 
as if she were gazing into the face of a friend from 
whom she feared to be forever parted. There was 
love and prayer in her eyes, but also a great sor- 
row. At that moment a small boy slipped into 
her hand a bit of folded paper on which was writ- 
ten, "We must not despair; France cannot be 
beaten.' ' It seemed to her that the words rang 
out in the clear, strong tones of her son — her 
brave Jean. Quickly she turned to the lad, her 
face alight now with hope and courage. She 
learned that he and his mother had been busy for 
two days and nights in their poor garret writing 
hundreds of such messages to carry a word of 

40 



THE HERO OF THE MAENE 

confidence to anxious people during that time of 
trial. 

"We must win while General JofTre leads our 
brave army and while Paris has such true hearts 
among those who wait at home," she said. And 
it seemed to the boy that the smile of that sad 
mother and the ring of triumph in her voice would 
always stay in his memory. 

In a few days the faith of the people in their 
leader and in the destiny of France was justified. 
All the world was talking of the miracle of the 
great victory and sounding the praises of General 
Joffre, the Hero of the Marne. 

When people spoke to Joffre of his triumph he 
said quietly, "It is not the commanding generals 
who win the battles. It is rather the colonels and 
even the simple captains. When the fighting front 
extends over some five hundred or six hundred 
miles the will of one man cannot be felt every- 
where, for there is but little opportunity for new 
combinations and surprises. The role of com- 
manding general all but comes to an end the mo- 
ment he has gathered at a desired point in battle 
line the forces that he sees are needed. The role 
of the colonels and captains begin when the first 

41 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

shot is fired. They decide the result of the 
struggle. The troops that win are those that have 
the faith and courage to hold out longest — that 
prove superior in endurance, in energy, and in 
confidence in the final victory.' ' 

People marvelled that JorTre was so unspoiled. 
"He never fails to give the other officers and the 
men in the ranks their share of the credit,' ' said 
a man in blue to a companion in khaki. "Our 
army is like one big family. Those Boche cap- 
tains who drive their men into battle with blows 
of their swords should see how our men rush 
forward at a word. We would trust 'Papa JofTre' 
through everything." 

"Papa JorTre" seemed to have no ambition. 
When another might have sought to keep the 
leader's power and place, he saw that the other 
generals — Petain and Foch — should have their 
turn at the command. 

1 ' They will come with fresh power to the great 
task," he said. "France needs the best that all 
her sons can bring." 

General JorTre was given the highest honor that 
his country could confer; he was made Marshal 
of France. But still the son of the cooper of 
Rivesaltes was untouched by ambition. His fond- 

42 



THE HERO OF THE MARNE 

est dream was to be allowed to retire after his 
years of service to his quiet home in the Pyrenees. 
"The battle must be taken up by younger men, ,, 
he said. "I shall perhaps have earned my days 
of rest." 

"The Battle of the Marne was the first great 
triumph of the World War, and the coming of 
America into the struggle was the second/ ' said 
a great Frenchman. It was fitting, therefore, that 
Marshal Joffre should have been chosen to come 
to America to speak for France to her new ally. 

The welcome given to the Hero of the Marne 
can only be compared to the enthusiastic recep- 
tion accorded Lafayette on his second visit to 
the United States. Those who saw him as he 
stood at salute before the Stars and Stripes, or 
as he turned to greet the throngs of cheering 
school children, knew that the hero of the Marne 
was indeed a great man, true, brave, and single- 
minded in his devotion to his country and in his 
forgetfulness of self. 

"Your cordial welcome moves me deeply," he 
said, "because I know it is homage paid to the 
whole French army which I represent here." 

I like to picture the general who saved France 
at Mount Vernon where he went to place a bronze 

43 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

wreath upon the tomb of the general who won 
liberty for the United States. "In the French 
army all venerate the name and memory of Wash- 
ington,' ' he said. "I respectfully salute here the 
great soldier and lay upon his tomb the palm we 
offer to our soldiers who have died for their coun- 
try." 

After returning to France, Marshal Joffre was 
frequently seen in company with General Persh- 
ing, for whom he expressed warm admiration. 
All that his experience had gained in the three 
years of fighting was put at the service of the 
American leader. "Papa Joffre" became known 
as the "godfather of the American army." 

Not long since I saw a boy who had been one 
of those to give a good account of himself at 
Chateau-Thierry. "We'd be pretty poor stuff if 
we fell down on the job, we fellows who had Mar- 
shal Joffre for godfather," he said with a smile 
that took no account of his empty sleeve. 

And so the spirit of the Hero of the Marne 
marched on winning other victories for freedom. 



44 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 
CAPTAIN GUYNEMER 



A hero of legendary power, he fell in the wide heaven of 
glory, after three years of hard fighting. He will long remain 
the purest symbol of the qualities of the race: indomitable in 
tenacity, enthusiastic in energy, sublime in courage. Animated 
with inextinguishable faith in victory, he bequeaths to the 
French soldier the imperishable remembrance which will exalt 
the spirit of sacrifice and the most noble emulation. 

Inscription to Guynemer in the Pantheon. 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

OF all the heroes of the World War, Georges 
Guynemer, the " gallant flying boy" of 
France, most appeals to the imagination. "A 
hero of legendary power, he fell in the wide heaven 
of glory after three years of hard fighting" reads 
the inscription set up in his memory in the Pan- 
theon, that classic Hall of Heroes in Paris. The 
very sound of his name enkindles ardor and stirs 
the heart. He has been called "the knight of the 
air," "the winged sword of France," and the 
story of his miraculous exploits is already linked 
with that of Joan of Arc. Like her, he seems to 
stand for the eager, unquenchable spirit of France. 

He was born on Christmas Eve, 1894. "I lead 
a charmed life," he used to say laughingly when 
his companions protested that he took too many 
risks. "You see it is not easy to hurt a chap 
who was born on Christmas Eve!" 

He was a child of frail body and indomitable 
will. It was as if Fate sought to prove once 

47 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

and for all that spirit was master — that soul 
could conquer in spite of every physical handi- 
cap. See the picture of him, a lad of twelve, 
among his mates at school. He is slighter and 
paler than them all, but his dark eyes burn with 
an intense fire that defies all restraint, all fetter- 
ing bonds of bodily limitation, and even, we can 
fancy, knowing the story of the triumph of his 
brief life, the mortal exactions of Time and 
Space. . . . 

As a tiny lad, he knew that his parents had 
grave concern because of his health. There were 
many consultations with physicians; there were 
journeys in search of health and strength. His 
education began at home under the governess of 
his two sisters. 

"No doubt it is best," complained his father, 
a retired army officer, whose fondest dream it 
was that his only son should win a place among 
those who serve their country, "but it looks as if 
we may have one petticoat too many in the 
family. ' ' 

There were walks with the father, and many 
long talks about the glories of the past that their 
town of Compeigne had shared. The chief enthu- 
siasm of Guynemer pere was history, and there 

48 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

was not one of the streets where they walked but 
could furnish a text. Kings had been consecrated 
there; kings had died there. Treaties that 
changed the destiny of nations had been signed 
there. Louis the Grand and the great Napoleon 
had given splendid fetes there. . . . But every 
walk to the palace, the abbey, or to the forest, was 
somehow incomplete if they did not go by the 
open square of the Hotel-de-ville, where a maiden 
in armor stood lifting the standard of France to 
the sky. 

"Who is she?" asked the child. 

"Jeanne d'Arc." 

Again and again he stood there gazing at the 
figure of the young girl who had led the armies 
of her country to victory and crowned her king, 
as he demanded to hear yet again about the miracle 
of her short life. It appeared that history was 
not all made by the wise and prudent like his 
father, but that children, too, had been able to do 
glorious things. Something seemed to draw him 
to that bronze maiden, who stood there straight 
as a sword, bearing her banner aloft. His heart 
burned within him, and a whisper came that guided 
all his days. 

"It is not how long we live that matters, but 

49 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

how and what we live. Life is not measured by 
the clock, but by noble heart-beats and brave 
deeds.' ' . . . The thought became clearer each 
time he stopped before the statue of the Maid. 
Surely she had lived as much for herself and the 
world as any one, no matter how many years and 
honors he might have to his credit. 

When his father told him the stories of his own 
people — how there was a Guynemer among those 
about whom the poet sang in the "Song of Ro- 
land/ ' that men of that name had been among 
those who fared forth on the Crusades, and that 
ever since, his forbears had been men who had 
served their country gallantly, keeping the honor 
of their fine, old family bright, again the whisper 
came, "It is not how long they lived that counts. 
Who cares to know the age of a Roland? The 
memory of glorious deeds alone remains.' ' 

At the age of twelve, little Georges Guynemer 
entered Stanislas College at Compeigne as a day 
pupil. They tell us that he was no book-worm 
— that he was too "tameless and swift and proud" 
to be held down by routine exercises. His quick- 
ness of intelligence and ready wit were recognized, 
and his "ambition of the first rank." At the 
end of the first year, Georges had won first prize 

50 



THE CHEVALIER OP FLIGHT 

in arithmetic, but it was on the playground in 
games that demanded agility and daring that the 
slight boy most distinguished himself. 

One game known as la petite guerre delighted 
the boy above everything else. The group of boys 
was divided into two armies, each commanded by 
a general chosen by themselves. All the soldiers 
strove to defend bands of color which they wore 
as armlets, and also to preserve from capture 
flags which floated from a wall, tree, or some other 
selected spot. A boy whose armlet was seized 
was hors de combat — a dead soldier. It is in- 
teresting to note that the boy who was most lack- 
ing in physical strength was a leader in this game. 
His energy, quickness of eye and wit, as well as 
his darting swiftness of movement and daring 
originality of attack, won for him first place. But 
it is to be noted also that he was never chosen 
general. His gifts were too much needed in the 
ranks of those who fought, and besides, he loved 
the struggle for its own sake. How he delighted 
in attacking the strongest and the most distin- 
guished scholars of them all, conquering by a sud- 
den turn before the other could tell what was 
happening; — and then the triumph of bearing the 
trophies to his general! He had no desire for 

51 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

leadership that would give him a role apart and 
aloof, leaving to others the chances and thrills 
that belong to the heat of the fray. So Georges 
Guynemer was always simple soldat. 

We have here an astonishing likeness of the 
youth, who, a few years later, was chief among 
all his country's brave knights of the air, the 
ace of aces who had fifty-four aeroplanes and 
two hundred and fifteen combats to his credit. 
He cared too much for the fight to wish to com- 
mand. He was the knight of solitary combat, 
preferring even to go alone in his machine, which 
he controlled with his feet and one hand while 
he fired his gun with the other. He attacked 
always the strongest, daunted neither by the num- 
ber nor prowess of his antagonists. His quick- 
ness and unexpectedness of attack were un- 
equalled. As if to show that life did not depend 
upon brawn or upon any virtue of physique alone, 
he conquered in spite of his frail body, proving 
that the will to do can triumph over every ob- 
stacle and overthrow the strongest. 

Notwithstanding periods of enforced retirement 
from his studies to the infirmary, or to his home 
for a prolonged rest of two or three months, he 
succeeded in keeping abreast of his class and in 

52 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

graduating at the age of fifteen. The next autumn 
he returned to go on with his studies in prepara- 
tion for the Polytechnic, specializing in mathe- 
matics and physics. At the same time his native 
interest in mechanics engaged not only most of 
his spare time but also many hours stolen from 
his regular tasks. His room was a veritable 
curiosity shop, where coils of wire, wheels, chemi- 
cals, batteries, and all sorts of mechanical odds 
and ends were jumbled together with note-books, 
staid texts, and articles of clothing. 

His spirit of invention which had shown itself 
when he was a child of four or five, now came 
into play in constructing a telephone that should 
put him in quick communication w T ith a friend in 
a distant part of the building. He developed 
a passion for experimentation in physics and 
chemistry. 

"He was absorbed for hours at a time," said 
Lieutenant Constantin, a comrade at Stanislas, 
"in working over problems in mathematics or 
mechanics, without giving a thought to what went 
on around. When he had solved the problem that 
challenged him or had succeeded in discovering 
something new, he would return satisfied to the 
affairs of the moment." 

53 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

A friendship made during these days at school 
had a great influence on the particular develop- 
ment of his interests. Jean Krebs, son of the 
manager of the Panhard motor car factory — that 
Colonel Krebs whose name is associated with the 
early progress in the production of aerial motors 
— became young Guynemer's constant companion. 
The workshop of his room or even the college 
laboratory was too narrow now. His real school 
was the motor factory, where he eagerly mastered 
the fascinating details of workmanship and man- 
agement of the various engines and mechanical 
contrivances. 

One day during the last year of preparation 
for the Polytechnic, his father carried him off 
for a much-needed rest to his grandmother's in 
Paris, after which he spent some weeks in travel 
with his mother and sisters. Then, one day, his 
father drew him apart for a serious talk. 

"You have had, my son, your years of prepara- 
tory study, and some leisure to think of the fu- 
ture. What profession do you plan to follow V* 

Without a moment's pause or change of expres- 
sion, as if he were not aware of saying something 
extraordinary, Georges replied, " Aviator." 

"But that is not a profession," said the amazed 

54 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

father. ' ' That is only a sport. You run through 
the air as an automobilist chases along the high- 
ways of the country. Then after spending your 
best years in the pursuit of pleasure, where are 
you?" 

Then Georges told his father what he had not 
breathed before to a living soul, not even his 
friend, Constantin, or Jean Krebs. "I have no 
other passion. One morning from the quadrangle 
of the college I saw an aviator fly over high in 
the air. I cannot explain what happened, but 
something new took possession of me. I felt a 
deeper emotion than I have ever known before, 
a feeling almost religious. You must trust me, 
my father, when I beg vou to let me go with the 
aeroplanes." 

"You do not know what it is that you ask, my 
boy," replied the father, moved by his son's ex- 
traordinary earnestness. "You have no knowl- 
edge of a flying machine except from below. It 
is a far-away romance to you." 

"You are wrong," replied Georges, "I have 
been up in one at Corbeaulieu. " Corbeaulieu was 
an aerodrome not far from Compeigne. 

A few months later, in July, 1914, the Guynemers 
were at Biarritz. Much had happened in the in- 

55 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

tervening weeks. Georges had been denied ad- 
mission to the Polytechnic because of his frail 
health. i ' He will not live to complete the course, ' ' 
declared the examining professors. It was the 
first real disappointment of the boy's life — the 
first closed door. Heretofore he had not felt that 
his weak body was a particular handicap; his 
spirit had risen triumphant over every limitation. 
But now it appeared that others had the power to 
rule for him, and to prevent his entering the life 
he felt must be his. 

To Biarritz they went for the mellow sunshine 
and soft sea breezes of the famous resort. Surely 
such golden days would bring health and strength. 
There were, however, other possibilities besides 
loitering on the sands and bathing at Biarritz. 
The beach made a fine landing-place for aero- 
planes. It was not accident, you may be sure, that 
brought young Guynemer to the spot when one of 
the great birds swept down to earth. He exam- 
ined the motor and every detail of the machine; 
he talked to the pilot. He never doubted that 
he was born to fly ! 

But then, as in a day, the gay world of study 
and adventure was changed. A heavy cloud ob- 
scured the sunshine even at Biarritz. His coun- 

56 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

try was plunged in war. In a moment former 
dreams and longings passed away with the sun- 
shine. Even flying was forgotten as something 
unreal and far away. Georges stood before his 
father, breathless with suspense. 

"I must enlist/ ' he said. 

"It is your right,' ' replied the ex-captain, look- 
ing at his son proudly. 

"You will permit — " 

"I envy you," was the firm answer. 

But again a closed door ! Three times the youth 
presented himself, and three times he was refused. 
They could not see beyond the slight form and 
the delicate chest, and recognize the spirit that 
would push on and triumph in real warfare for 
his country, as the frail child had overcome the 
strongest at school in the game of war. He felt 
that life held nothing for him; it seemed that he 
was helpless to lift himself out of the slough of 
despond. 

Then, one day, a glimpse of his old friend, the 
gallant Maid who stood as ever, holding aloft the 
standard of her country, quickened his spirit. 
She, too, had known the torture of feeling herself 
held back when all her soul was urging her for- 
ward, but she had kept on and saved France. It 

57 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

was not always by strength and might that des- 
tiny was shaped. . . . Some solemn words that he 
had heard chanted in church rang in his ears now 
with new meaning: 

He bath put down the mighty — 

And hath exalted the humble and meek. — 

Was not Joan of Arc an eternal witness to the 
truth of those words? 

As in a flash he saw what he could do. His 
old dreams revived in a new guise, and he saw 
the path ahead. He was on the sand when an 
aeroplane came to earth that day, and he talked 
earnestly for a moment with the sergeant-pilot. 

"How does one enlist in the aviation service ?" 
he asked. 

"See the Captain at Pau," was the reply. 

The boy's parents hardly recognized him when 
he next appeared, his face alight with life and 
hope. Surely the doctors were mistaken ; he must 
get well. It was unthinkable that such youth and 
fire should be so soon extinguished. 

"Mon pere, I must go to Pau to-morrow/' he 
declared without preamble, "to enlist as an avia- 
tor. Before the war you would not listen, but 

58 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

now you see that aviation is more than a sport." 

And the lad had his wish. On the morrow 
he presented himself before Captain Bernard- 
Thierry, who was in command of the aviation camp 
at Pau. It seemed as if his heart would burst, 
and the eager words fairly tripped over each 
other. 

"My Captain, do me but this favor. Take me 
in ! Employ me at anything at all, even cleaning 
the machines. You are my last chance. Let it 
be through you that I am permitted to do some- 
thing in this war. ' ' 

The Captain looked at the slender boy with the 
burning eyes and flushed cheeks. He saw more 
than the slight form; he divined something of 
the power of the spirit within. He was a man 
who believed that the soul is master of the frame 
in which it dwells. 

"I can take you as pupil-mechanic," he said. 

Guynemer drew a long sigh. This door at least 
was not shut. "Good!" he exulted. "I have 
some knowledge of motors." 

That was in November, 1914. After two months 
as mechanic he had won a place among the ranks 
of student aviators, and on February first he made 

59 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

his trial trip aloft as pilot. "I began in a 'taxi* " 
he said, "and then the following week I mounted 
an airplane, going in straight lines, turning and 
gliding; and on March 10 I made two flights last- 
ing twenty minutes. At last I had found my 
wings ; I passed the examination next day. ' ' 

We are told that Guynemer's ambitious spirit 
almost proved his undoing at the very beginning 
of his career. The head pilot complained that 
he was too rash, venturing out in contrary weather 
and essaying turns that were far too difficult for 
one of his small experience. Guynemer always 
shivered slightly when he spoke of how narrowly 
he had escaped being dropped from the list of 
military aviators. 

It was not long before the master pilot and all 
the rest of the camp knew that the youth they 
had so nearly lost was the leader of them all — 
an eagle among the birds of the air. Though his 
daring attacks seemed to take no account of risks, 
he returned victorious from every encounter. As 
the boy at school in the game of war had always 
sought to vanquish the strongest, so now the young 
eagle always marked the flight of the first among 
the enemy planes and strove to bring those to 
the ground. Before three weeks had passed, he 

60 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

had brought his fifth Boche plane to the earth, 
thus becoming an ace. 

The splendid abandon and sublime courage of 
his adventures in the air won the adoring admira- 
tion of all his comrades, and accounts of his ex- 
ploits were passed eagerly from mouth to mouth. 
The story of the combat of September 29, 1916, 
moved all France, and the young aviator awoke to 
find himself the hero of the hour. Seeing one 
of his comrades attacked by five enemy planes, 
he mounted to the rescue. At a height of 10,000 
feet, he shot and sent to earth two within thirty 
seconds of each other. The others tried to escape, 
but pursuing, he brought down a third in two 
minutes. Then — a mischief! — a shell exploded 
under his machine tearing off one of the wings 
of the noble bird. Down he fell into No Man's 
Land where in an instant he was seen rising from 
the wreck. The enemy opened up a diabolical 
machine gun fire to prevent his escape, but with 
a mighty shout the French surged "over the top" 
and succeeded in effecting a rescue. That was 
the occasion that won for Guynemer the rank 
of lieutenant, and the decoration of the croix de 
guerre. 

Let us read one of the brief entries in his diary, 

61 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

for January 26, 1917. He has been attacking a 
Boche plane in his best manner by descending on 
it from above, when his gun becomes disabled. 

I try to bluff. I mount to 2000 feet over hiiu and drop onto 
him like a stone. For a moment I think that was without 
effect when he begins to descend. I put myself ten yards be- 
hind him, but every time I showed my nose around the edge 
of his tail the gunner took aim at me. 

We take the road towards Compeigne— 3000 feet— 2000 feet 
— again I show my nose and this time the gunner lets go his 
machine gun and motions to me that he surrenders. All 
right! 

I see four bombs stowed away under his machine. 1500 
feet. The Boche slows down his windmill. I swerve over him 
while he lands, but not having any gun or ammunition I can- 
not prevent the Boches from setting fire to their taxi, a 200 
H. P. Albatros, magnificent. "When I see that they are safely 
surrounded I come down and show the Boches my crippled 
machine gun. 

If it seemed to others that he ran needless risks 
in the spirit of untamed adventure, he always 
declared that he never took random chances — that 
he saw his way. His extraordinary quickness of 
eye and movement, together with his absolute 
fearlessness that saved him from indecision at a 
critical moment, account for many of his seem- 
ingly miraculous escapes. His individual method 
of acting both as pilot and gunner was another 
source of strength; it enabled him to carry more 

62 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

gasoline and ammunition, and his aim was as sure 
as his management of his wings. The gun, which 
was attached to the top of the machine over his 
head, was controlled by a lever that could be op- 
erated with one hand. The sights were directly in 
front so that he aimed by pointing his machine. 

Guynemer, the practical machinist, was, more- 
over, always on duty before every flight. No one 
could accuse him of recklessness and say that he 
was saved through some magic of luck who saw 
him prepare for an attack. He spent an hour 
in carefully, lovingly, examining his aeroplane 
and gun. Every screw and buckle was put to the 
test. Every cartridge was inspected and oiled, 
together with all the other parts of his equipment. 
He knew the exact condition of his motor and 
propeller, and so was sure what he could count 
on in case of stress. 

Guynemer 's squadron, "The Storks,' ' so called 
from the flying stork painted on the side of each 
machine, included more aviators of note than any 
other escadrille. Fourteen members of this group 
brought down a third of all the German machines 
destroyed before January, 1918, two hundred in 
less than three years, according to the official 
count. 

63 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

Among all of the famous ' * Storks, ' ' Rene Dorme 
was second only to Guynemer in the management 
of his machine and the sureness of his aim. His 
disappearance over the enemy lines after a fierce 
battle in the clouds four months before the loss 
of Guynemer himself, was mourned by all his 
comrades. On the day that he went from them, 
May 25, 1917, Guynemer scored his famous quad- 
ruple victory. It seemed as if the strength born 
of his avenging rage knew no bounds. Seeing 
three machines flying together toward the French 
lines, he made one of his spectacular mounts, 
swooped down upon them, and put them to flight. 
Pursuing, he succeeded in getting one in the line 
of fire and brought it to earth in flames. 

The one weakness of Guynemer 's solitary 
method of fighting was the danger of rear attack. 
That was where his marvellous agility came into 
play — darting, turning, he seemed ready at every 
point. After bringing down, now, his first Boche, 
the avenger wheeled and saw a second trying to 
reach him at the moment he was intent upon his 
conquest ; but he had already received from above 
one of the French explosive bullets, and in a mo- 
ment fell in flames like his companion. A third 
Boche who dared to approach the French aviation 

64 




Photograph by Press Illustrating Service, Inc. 

THE LATE CAPTAIN GEORGES GUYNEMER 
French Ace 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

field at noon of the same day was sighted by Guy- 
nemer, who was at the time high in the air. 
Swooping down like a wrathful spirit, he fired 
but one shot when the rash enemy fell to earth; 
the bullet had found the head of the pilot. That 
same evening Guynemer mounted again and 
brought down his fourth machine in flames — a 
spectacular finish for his great day. 

It was this quadruple victory that won for Guy- 
nemer the Rosette of the Legion of Honor which 
was presented with this commendation : 

"An elite officer, a fighting pilot as skilful as audacious. 
He has rendered glowing service to his country, both by the 
number of his victories and the daily example he has set of 
burning ardor and even greater mastery increasing from day 
to day. Unconscious of danger, on account of his sureness 
of method and precision of maneuvers, he has become the most 
redoubtable of all to the enemy. On May 25, 1917, he accom- 
plished one of his most brilliant exploits, beating down two 
enemy airplanes in one minute, and gaining two more victories 
the same day. By all of his exploits he has contributed to- 
wards exalting the courage and enthusiasm of those, who, from 
the trenches, were the witnesses of his triumphs. He has 
brought down forty-five airplanes, received twenty citations 
and been seriously wounded twice." 

But I think that more than any eulogy of the 
great or adoration of the crowd, Georges Guy- 
nemer would have held dear this fervid tribute of 
little Franc-Comtois Paul Bailly, an eleven-year- 

65 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

old schoolboy in the village of Bouclans, who was 
selected by his mates to speak for them in a com- 
position written on the day set apart for the com- 
memoration of the life of the hero of aces in the 
schools : 

Guynerner is the Roland of our epoch. Like Roland he was 
very valiant, and like Roland, he died for France. But his 
exploits are not a legend, like those of Roland; they are more 
splendid when told in simple truth than if they had been in- 
vented. For his glorification there is to be written in the 
Pantheon his own among the other great names. His aero- 
plane is placed in the Invalides. At our school a day is con- 
secrated to him; we have his portrait on our wall; we have 
learned his last citation in the army orders as a lesson; we 
have traced his name for penmanship; and we have made a 
drawing of an aeroplane. 

Roland was the pattern of the chevaliers of another age. 
Guynerner becomes the pattern of the French of to-day and all 
will try to follow his example. I indeed shall never forget 
him ; I shall keep the remembrance that he, like my dear papa, 
died for France. 

And so it was that to yonng and old, to the sol- 
diers in the trenches, to workmen in the factories, 
and to war- weary people throughout the land, Guy- 
nerner was the incarnation of the glorious, uncon- 
querable soul of France. 

In the summer of 1917, the young hero's friends 
sought to prevail upon him to take some much- 
needed rest. 

66 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

"You wanted to bring down fifty; that was the 
goal that you set for yourself. Can you not now 
be satisfied for a little 1 ' ' pleaded his father. 

"They will think I have stopped because I have 
won all the honors they have to give; they will 
think that I fought for the prizes !" said Georges. 
"It is my life to fly." 

"But surely now that you are the leader of 
the squadron you must see that you have enough 
work for a while in planning, in teaching and di- 
recting us all," urged his companions. 

"How can you expect me to hold back and hoard 
myself when adventure beckons?" he replied. 
"Bringing down Boches is meat and drink to me." 

Guynemer loved his little machine with clipped 
wings as Roland did his horse. Though he won 
his aceship in a slower model, his favorite steed 
could rise 10,000 feet in ten minutes and maintain 
the rate of 120 miles an hour. This "scorner 
of the ground" lost its buoyancy when the speed 
was less than 60 miles, and it was, therefore, 
necessary to bring it to a landing at that rate. 
How Guynemer chafed when, in the stress of a 
moment, he was forced to use a borrowed machine. 
Now his own model is kept, a sacred relic, in the 
Invalides. 

67 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

In one of the old hero tales of the Norse we 
read that when the gods wished to summon Sig- 
mund, the glorious, to the joys of Valhalla, Odin, 
himself, stayed his hand in the midst of battle, 
and broke his magic sword. We might believe 
that the Chevalier of Flight was singled out by 
the gods that August, for his marvellous power 
seemed all at once to pass from him. He struggled 
fiercely against fate — in one day flying seven hours 
and engaging in several encounters, but all with- 
out a single success. On September 10, the day 
before the last flight, he attempted to set out in 
three different machines, but all proved contrary 
and forced him back to earth. That evening his 
companions, despairing of making him listen to 
reason, telephoned to his old commanding officer to 
come and carry him off before he did himself a 
mischief. Commander Brocard wired Guynemer 
that he was coming to see him at nine o 'clock the 
next morning. 

It seemed as if the young eagle divined their 
schemes to cage him. At eight o'clock, calling 
Lieutenant Bozon-Verduras to accompany him, 
Guynemer set out on his last flight. As in the 
case of the greatest heroes, his passing was 
shrouded in mystery. The French peasants de- 

68 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

clare that he was never brought to the ground, 
but that his dauntless wings carried him straight 
up to heaven. All that his companion could tell 
was this: Guynemer sighted an enemy machine 
and flew to the attack, leaving him to ward off 
a possible interference from a group of fighting 
planes in the distance. They turned off in an- 
other direction, however, without seeing the eagle 
circling above. When the lieutenant returned to 
his station, the eagle had passed out of sight. 
"Surely," he thought, "he brought down his game 
and followed to see the finish." 

But that was the last that was seen of the leader 
of the "Storks." 

News of his disappearance was carefully sup- 
pressed, so that his chances of escape might not be 
lessened in case he had been forced to land in 
enemy territory. But in spite of everything, a 
London newspaper of September 17 gave out the 
story of his loss, and some days after this the 
Cologne "Gazette" printed an item, saying cas- 
ually that a pilot to fame unknown, one Wisse- 
man, had written home that he had brought down, 
on September 10, the great ace of aces, and so 
could not doubt his power to conquer everywhere ! 
Though the Germans had always been accustomed 

69 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

to announce immediately the fall of an enemy 
aviator, this was the only news of the great Guy- 
nemer that was forthcoming for ten days after 
his disappearance. 

Application was made through the Red Cross to 
Germany for official information as to the disposi- 
tion of his body, and the reply came that after he 
had been brought down on September 10 he was 
buried with military honors in the cemetery at 
Poelcappelle in Belgium. When this village a few 
days later fell into the hands of the British, how- 
ever, the search for his grave was in vain. In 
reply to a further request for information, the 
news was vouchsafed that Guynemer's body could 
not be removed from the wreck of his machine 
because of the unceasing artillery fire, which 
finally, in flames and upturned earth destroyed 
every trace of the aeroplane and its pilot. 

It may be that the children and the untaught 
peasants are right when they say that the life of 
the marvellous boy ended in a miracle. At any 
rate his fiery spirit left no cold ashes to be re- 
turned to Mother Earth, even to the sacred soil 
of his beloved France, when it passed into the 
eternal sky — fire unto fire! 

70 



THE CHEVALIER OF FLIGHT 

On the tablet erected to his memory in the 
Pantheon are inscribed these words : 

"Captain Guynemer, commander of Squadron No. 3, died 
on the field of honor September 11, 1917. A hero of legend- 
ary power, he fell in the wide heaven of glory, after three 
years of hard fighting. He will long remain the purest sym- 
bol of the qualities of the race: indomitable in tenacity, en- 
thusiastic in energy, sublime in courage. Animated with in- 
extinguishable faith in victory, he bequeaths to the French 
soldier the imperishable remembrance which will exalt the 
spirit of sacrifice and the most noble emulation." 



71 



"LE PATRON": 

(The Boss) 

MARSHAL FOCH 



"Victory is a thing of the will. ... A lost battle is a battle 
one believes oneself to have lost. A battle, then, can only be 
lost morally, and it is only morally that a battle is won." 

Marshal Foch. 



"LE PATRON" 

(The Boss) 

WHAT manner of man is Marshal Foch, the 
man who brought the one thing needful 
for the success of the Allied Forces — unity? For, 
as all of their early defeats were due to the lack 
of a man big enough to bring together all the 
diverse elements and varying national ideals and 
ambitions that fought side by side in the great 
Army of Freedom, so the last splendid victories 
were directly due to the presence of that "four- 
square man ' ' — the sort of balanced character, that, 
the great Napoleon declared, the successful leader 
must be. For while, like the Little Corporal, 
he is small of stature, (as if Fate wished to prove 
that human power depends not upon material fac- 
tors but upon "divine" elements) the man whom 
the French soldiers call le patron, the Boss, and 
the great generals of all the Allied Armies have 
hailed as Generalissimo, is not only, quoting Joffre, 
"the greatest strategist in Europe and the hum- 

75 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

blest/ ' but one of the greatest military com- 
manders of all time. 

The measure of the man is indicated in his 
famous message sent to Joffre at the crisis of the 
first battle of the Marne : 

"My right has been rolled up; my left has been 
driven in ; — consequently, with all that I have left 
in my centre, I now will attack ! ' ' 

So it was that in the very midst of disaster, he 
never allowed himself for a moment to think de- 
feat. For with all his soul Foch believes "A lost 
battle is a battle one believes oneself to have lost ; 
in a material sense no battle can be lost. A battle, 
then, can only be lost morally, and it is only mor- 
ally that a battle is won. ,, Never for an instant 
did Foch swerve from his faith in the ultimate 
victory. His first quoted utterance after assum- 
ing the supreme command was typical of his atti- 
tude: "The future will show the full measure of 
our success. All is going well. ,, 

But if this finely tempered optimism, that is 
much more than a matter of sanguine tempera- 
ment, having its roots in his sober, reasoned phi- 
losophy of life, accounts in a measure for his suc- 
cess, it is yet only half the story. He has shown 
first and last a determined bulldog tenacity that 

76 



"LE PATRON' ' 

may be compared to General Grant's I shall fight 
it out on this line if it takes all summer. Another 
incident that has become part of the history of 
the first battle of the Marne will illustrate this 
characteristic, which was, in the balanced charac- 
ter of the leader, what reserves are in the con- 
stitution of an army. At the height of the struggle 
when Foch was carrying out his superb counter- 
offensive in the presence of apparent failure, one 
of his officers rode up to him and said, "It is 
impossible to persist further; my men are tired 
out." 

"Tired out!" exclaimed Foch sharply; "so are 
the Germans ! Attack ! ' ' 

Thus, in the account of Foch's part in bring- 
ing about "the miracle of the Marne,' ' we have 
the keynote of his character. 

Everybody felt that the Battle of the Marne was 
a veritable miracle, but still everybody wanted 
to know what the chief human factor was in bring- 
ing about the victory that shattered Von Billow's 
army, checkmated Von Kluck, and saved Paris. 

"There are just two things that you can pick 
out," said a French officer. "The first was the 
way in which Joffre hurled Manoury's army on 
the flank of Von Kluck, bringing him once for 

77 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

all to a halt ; the other — and I am inclined to think 
it as great a factor — was the wonderful strategy 
of Foch. At a moment when he seemed too weak 
to maintain the defensive, he saved himself and 
won the day by a brilliant counter-attack. Dis- 
covering a gap between two German armies, he 
directed his batteries at that point with such tell- 
ing effect that a veritable panic took possession 
of the lines raked by our 75 's. This success was 
planned to occupy the enemy and screen his mas- 
ter-stroke — a surprise maneuver similar to that of 
Joffre's. Seizing a neighboring division on the 
left, he swept it around to the right in a sudden 
pounce on the German flank:' ' 

In one of Foch's celebrated books on the science 
of war, we find some bits of interesting philosophy. 
"Victory is a thing of the will," he says; and 
"A general must possess the energy to take the 
necessary risks. ' ' His own career gives admirable 
point to his teaching, for, rooted and grounded 
in his certain faith in the ultimate victory, his 
will to win was indeed invincible, and he saw that 
the necessary risks were so many God-given oppor- 
tunities, to be seized with an energy that would 
never fail so long as it refused to entertain the 
thought of defeat. 

78 



"LE PATEON" 

Foch knew that pessimism is a confession of 
weakness, so he watched for indications of de- 
pression in the enemy as he watched for weak 
points in their lines. 

"War is not an exact science, it is a terrifying 
and passionate drama !" he used to say. In his 
strategy, then, he took account of the mind and 
moral attitude of the enemy. "We must maneu- 
ver if we are going to bring to bear a superior 
force at a certain point, ' ' he said, ' ' and we get the 
full effect of the surprise by the sudden appear- 
ance of danger which the enemy cannot ward off. 
Never let yourself look upon a battle as a mere 
artillery duel. It is a struggle of moral forces 
and morale will win. ' ' 

Once again, who is this great strategist who 
is also a psychologist and a philosopher? What 
is the personality behind the power? 

Ferdinand Foch was born October 2, 1851, in 
the town of Tarbes in the foot-hills of the Pyre- 
nees. It is a curious coincidence that his birth- 
place was only four miles distant from that of 
Joffre, and that the two Marne generals were 
within a few months of the same age. Both were 
brilliant mathematicians and both were artillery- 
men. Both had their first taste of war at the siege 

79 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

of Paris in 1871. Both had somewhat similar 
colonial experience in Madagascar. But there the 
parallel ends. Joffre, big, patient and solid, was 
by temperament a cautious, defensive fighter; 
Foch, something below medium, slight and quick, 
was in theory and practice a believer in main- 
taining the offensive even out of apparent weak- 
ness. 

Some have declared that the Foch family has 
an Alsatian strain, which accounts for the suspi- 
ciously Teutonic look of the name. (It is pro- 
nounced as if it were spelled Foche, the o very 
long.) But he is in fact much nearer being a 
Spaniard, for there is a dash of Basque blood in 
his veins, and his early childhood was spent within 
sight of the hills of Spain. There was nothing, 
however, of the dreamer of castles in Spain in 
the child Ferdinand or in the youth who was dis- 
tinguished for his proficiency in geometry and 
logic. He loved the exact sciences, turning away 
instinctively from the vague and intangible. 

"His feet are always planted firmly on the 
ground, and his head is always level,' ' said one 
of his students at the Ecole de Guerre — France's 
famous war college — "but he is not one who thinks 

80 



"LE PATRON" 

that you can bring a yardstick to the judgment 
of all the facts of the universe. ,, 

Does it seem a matter of surprise that the first 
strategist in Europe was once an instructor who 
was so enthusiastic in his work and so inspiring 
in his influence that he was called a "born 
teacher"! He taught more than the bare facts; 
he developed the power to think, and his strong 
personality commanded respect and quickened 
character. 

"The officers who passed through the Ecole de 
Guerre between 1896 and 1907 will never lose the 
impression produced on them by their professor 
of strategy and tactics. The course was eagerly 
looked forward to, as the fundamental teaching 
of the school," said one of his former pupils. 
i ' When directing a skeleton or map maneuver, he 
put his officers through a veritable course of in- 
tellectual gymnastics. It was impossible to cir- 
cumvent him by approximations or compromises ; 
he always held you up with his famous : ' Now what 
is the point?' He was an excellent teacher be- 
cause he had a passion for teaching." 

The philosophy of General Foch, which pro- 
foundly influenced his work as a teacher, as we 

81 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

see in his published volumes of lectures, "The 
Principles of War ' ' and i l Concerning the Waging 
of War," had its source in deep religious convic- 
tions. The faith that he was taught in his child- 
hood grew and ripened with the experiences of 
the years. Never a thing apart, it was the unify- 
ing principle of his practical conceptions of life. 
"He is the only man of theory I ever knew who 
was better in practice,' ' said an English officer. 

"Do you recall that I come of a religious family, 
to whom the church is of tremendous moment f" 
said Foch one day to Premier Clemenceau, who 
had just informed him, over their after-luncheon 
coffee and cigars, that he had been appointed 
Director of the Ecole de Guerre. "What will the 
politicians say to your putting up a man whose 
brother is a Jesuit priest ? Why, I have not even 
been a candidate !" 

1 ' That is just it ! ' > replied the < ' Tiger. ' ' " This 
is one classic instance of the office seeking the 
man. Besides I think you have the added distinc- 
tion of being the one eligible officer who hasn't 
been a candidate. ' ' 

"But you have n't taken into account the fright- 
ful handicap of my religion/ ' put in Foch again, 
the suspicion of a twinkle in his eyes, 

82 



"LE PATRON" 

"Well, General, ,, returned the "Tiger," "not 
all the Jesuits in the world or all the suspicions 
of the anti-church party can together keep you 
from taking the job you're the man for!" 

And so, first as teacher of military history and 
theory and later as Commandant, Foch exerted a 
powerful, determining influence upon the classes 
of young officers who directed the French divisions 
in the Great War. In a very real sense, therefore, 
the French army is Foch's army, from the men 
in the ranks, who, to the last poilu of them all, 
rely implicitly upon le patron, to the colonels and 
commanders who were imbued through and 
through with a single ideal : France must profit 
by the hard lesson of the defeat of 1871. Sure 
of herself and her cause, she must have the cour- 
age to dominate events — to seize and keep the 
offensive at all costs. 

"What a confession of weakness it was," said 
a French captain, "when the Germans gave up 
open fighting and took to the trenches. They 
could do nothing more than prolong the struggle 
and delay the inevitable end in that way. More- 
over, time was fighting for us, since Germany was 
in effect a besieged city. But only a nation with 
a cause and a sure faith could have kept on with 

83 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

the aggressive part after a defeat like that of the 
Marne." 

General Foch's faith in victory was not of the 
sort that refuses to face the difficulties to be sur- 
mounted. We are told that when he was ques- 
tioned during the dark days of 1914, for his judg- 
ment in regard to the struggle, he used to reply 
in three short words : "Long, dur, sur." (Long, 
hard, sure.) And the four years that succeeded 
proved that he was a true jjrophet. 

The way in which Foch kept ahead of the Ger- 
mans in the famous "race to the sea" well illus- 
trates what force there was behind those three 
words as uttered by the master strategist, who 
also declared with a conviction that could only 
come from practical experience, "No man need 
ever be tired in a crisis if he manages his mind 
right." 

Picture the situation when the Germans, after 
the Marne check, were trying to pass on through 
Western France and outflank the French army." 
Seeing the danger, the French kept extending their 
lines westward to bar the way. Thus the two 
armies were, in effect, racing to the coast, which, 
when reached, would put an end to any further 
move to get behind and envelop the Allied armies. 

84 



"LE PATRON" 

The Germans, who had superior numbers and 
equipment of every sort, — railway material, motor 
trucks, and every means of transportation, to- 
gether with their big guns, — seemed to have heavy 
odds on their side. But there they came against 
Foch, with his power to seize the vital points of 
a situation and multiply his force by swift and 
well-calculated movement. It was as if each man 
under his skilful strategy did the work of two. 
Every unit was dynamic at every moment — and 
Foch always managed to get on the spot first. 

Of all the brilliant French leaders, Foch was 
the one best understood and most warmly admired 
by the British. This was partly because his tem- 
perament accorded happily with the English atti- 
tude. 

"That little man would be hopeful if he had a 
bullet through his middle, " said Tommy Atkins. 

"He lives and flourishes by mental pluck," said 
a London newspaper correspondent. 

It was, however, not only his invigorating 
optimism which won for him the whole-hearted 
confidence of the British, but the fact that he was 
indeed a four-square man — that he did not flinch 
before the "long and dur" of the fighting while 
he insisted on the sur of the victory. It was 

85 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

really a beautiful thing to see Lloyd George's 
look of content when he spoke of General Foch's 
selection as Commander-in-chief. He knew that 
at last the Allies had a leader who would bring 
them all together — a man who would meet every 
stress and rise to every emergency. 

That was shown at the first battle of Ypres, 
when British cooks, orderlies and porters — the 
last muster of reserves — were trying to hold back 
the German hordes, battalion on battalion of picked 
men, and, as it would seem, unlimited reenforce- 
ments. At the darkest moment w T hen the British 
were quite spent and the Belgians all but despair- 
ing of holding the line at the Yser, Foch arrived 
with a sufficient number of reserves and his faith 
in a determined offensive. As one correspondent 
put it, "he loosed the dikes and flooded the Ger- 
mans with Frenchmen." Putting up his trusty 
75 's in any cover that came to hand, he promptly 
shattered the Huns' belief in the possibility of 
a drive. With a greatly inferior force which he 
kept moving in small but telling counter-attacks, 
he won the day. Again as at the Marne, he 
proved the virtue of his swift and well-timed 
offensive as the surest means of defense. 

British officers and historians were unanimous 

86 



"LE PATRON" 

in lauding Foch as the one to whom they owed 
it that Calais and the other Channel ports were not 
seized for submarine bases. In token of the na- 
tion's gratitude, King George promptly bestowed 
on the French commander the Order of the Bath, a 
distinction given only to those who have rendered 
the greatest service to England. 

"Why did you have so few prisoners to show 
for your victory at Ypres?" Foch was asked. 

"It must have been because our machine guns 
and bayonets gave the Boches no chance to think 
of surrender," he replied. 

It was once said of Foch that he was of the 
"Bonaparte and Kaiser kind" in his willingness 
to sacrifice lives in order to score in the great 
game. "Well," he retorted, when timidly chal- 
lenged by an American attache in regard to his 
policy, "your own Grant did not believe in spar- 
ing men when the need came, did he?" 

"That is true," acquiesced the American. 
"One must sacrifice to win." 

"Don't misunderstand and misquote me now," 
said Foch, a twinkle in his blue-gray eyes. "It 
is the Germans I believe in sacrificing; I never 
throw away my own soldiers." 

"What is the secret of the Boss's uncanny in- 

87 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

stinct for hitting upon just the right spots for 
his surprise attacks V ' queried an ambitious Amer- 
ican lieutenant who believed in improving the 
chance that had put him opposite a thoughtful 
French captain at dinner. 

"It would seem as if he not only studies the 
present condition of the enemy — his material and 
moral assets — but from that point of departure 
he studies also the future." The Captain paused, 
choosing his words. "Of course the roots of the 
future are in the present ; and Foch seems to have 
power to divine the nature and trend of the growth 
from what now exists. He puts himself face to 
face with the enemy's problems, sees the way hell 
try to meet them, and then with that grip on the 
future, our General makes it his business to strike 
first. There is every advantage in that first blow. 
And, you must admit,' ' he added with a laugh, 
"that, when it is a matter of being quick and on 
the spot the Hun with his ponderous Kultur is 
no match for a Frenchman. ' ' 

Would you like to get a glimpse of the Foch 
that the members of his staff know? The Paris 
"L 'Illustration" pictures his headquarters at the 
rear of the lines where, in a room without chairs 
since everybody there is always at alert attention, 

88 




Photograph by Press Illustrating Service, Inc. 



MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH 

Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces 



"LE PATEON" 

the General stands before a map of the fighting 
area as if he were in a classroom. About him are 
grouped in the strictest military fashion a number 
of officers — the members of his staff. „ 

The "Boss" has direct blue-gray eyes, set wide 
apart under a high forehead ; the nose is large and 
finely cut, the chin powerful. One is immediately 
impressed by the serenity and also by the nervous 
energy of his face. He stands motionless, except 
that now and then he tugs abruptly at his iron- 
gray moustache. His even tones carry authority 
and conviction. . . . An officer enters, salutes, and 
makes a report. Foch looks intently at the map, 
draws a line, puts a question, and then turns back 
to the map as the officer takes a place among the 
rest of the staff. He is, like Joffre, a man of 
few words when at the post of command. 

As Generalissimo, he is the one who decides for 
all the armies of the Allies the points for attack 
and those for withdrawal; the immediate placing 
of the army of maneuver; and the exact moment 
for passing from the defense to aggression. 
Under his direction, not only the forces on the 
Western front — six million men of eight different 
nationalities — acted together as one mighty army ; 
but also the armies in Palestine, in Bulgaria, and 

89 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

in Italy, timed their moves as parts of the great 
whole. 

"You officers who simply know the General at 
headquarters, have never seen the real man, ' ' said 
one of his friends. "It is only when he is out 
of doors that le Patron relaxes his hold and gives 
the man a chance — the man who loves the woods, 
who knows the trees as intimates of his spirit. 
And he is almost as much at his ease among books 
and pictures as he is in the saddle." 

His hours with his horse, Croesus, a splendid 
chestnut, who was his favorite companion through 
all the campaigns of the war, gave the General 
the rest and renewal he most needed while he 
was carrying the plans of the world battles in 
his mind and heart. Like Napoleon, he found that 
a brisk canter could, on occasion, take the place 
of hours of sleep. 

It is the time of the great German offensive, 
launched March 21, 1918, which held the centre of 
the world stage until the middle of April. Foch 
is biding his time, upheld by his faith in the 
victory and a patience like that of Joffre. He is 
holding all his forces in leash, even when he sees 
the Allied line broken and his armies in retreat. 
His confidence seems born of a power to judge 

90 



"LE PATRON" 

aright the factors that are working against him 
in the present moment and to see what the future 
has in store. He reads as in an open book the 
conditions underlying this desperate spending of 
every resource in man power and munitions. It 
is a gambler's mad stake on one last throw. 

Calmly he waits, letting the enemy spend him- 
self. The Germans reason that he is overwhelmed 
by the mighty onslaught, that their advance has 
crushed all power of resistance. Why need to 
worry about food supplies? Hindenburg assures 
the people at home that by the first of May they 
will be in Paris and have the Allies at their mercy. 

Still Foch bides his time. He knows that this 
wave of success must soon break; he knows that 
the situation must indeed be desperate when a 
great leader pins all his faith on one stroke, mak- 
ing no preparation for a blow at any other point. 
It must be a race with starvation. Once again 
the Germans prove their inability to gauge either 
the resources or the morale of the nations ranged 
against them. They see in Foch's waiting only 
a confession of weakness, and their assurance 
grows. Eecklessly they plunge on. The Allied 
line gives way before them reluctantly, but it 
yields, even as far as the Marne. 

91 



FIGHTEES FOR PEACE 

There, out of breath as it were, the Germans 
pause a moment. Since every offensive with its 
concentrated effort leads to a shrinking of the 
lines, there comes inevitably a point where a lull is 
necessary in order to give room for maneuver. 
Then a general must be ready to strike at another 
point if he does not want to lose the initiative. 
But when, in April, the German offensive wore 
itself out at the Marne, Foch knew that his hour 
had come. They should see that they had to 
reckon with a force that would not allow them to 
take their good time to recover. The chance of 
following up their victory would never come. 

There were two alternatives before Foch. He 
might attempt a strong blow on the German flank, 
or he might try a succession of blows at several 
points. There is always a temptation to try for 
the big thing — for the one decisive stroke for 
which everybody longs. But Foch saw that the 
enemy had still great striking power and that 
they were at their best between Rheims and the 
North Sea where their excellent system of com- 
munication would make the shifting of forces from 
point to point easy. He decided on a hammering 
policy that aimed to reduce their numbers and 
their morale bit by bit. It was as if he said to 

92 



"LE PATEON" 

himself: "I will give them chance to experience 
nothing but blow upon blow until they get in the 
habit of thinking defeat. ' ' 

What uncanny power gave the master strategist 
his instinct for the exact point to strike? Always 
he selected a spot where the Germans were trying 
to effect a retirement or one from which they 
were attempting to bring reserves. As soon as 
the exasperated Von Ludendorf, (who had suc- 
ceeded Hindenburg as chief of staff) tried to shift 
a few battalions from another section to relieve 
the one under stress, along came another irritat- 
ing check right at that point ! It was really most 
annoying to be delayed by such petty engage- 
ments when he was almost ready to set in motion 
a drive so colossal that the Kaiser's enemies 
should be forever confounded. 

But Foch continued to hammer away, now with 
the army of Byng at Cambrai ; now with the forces 
of Rawlinson at St. Quentin. Again, the storm 
centre shifted to St. Mihiel or the Meuse, where 
Pershing's men rose to the attack. Then, at the 
very moment an attempt was made to abandon 
the territory between Ypres and the sea, the Eng- 
lish, French and Belgians fell upon the retreating 
columns and forced them willy-nilly into line. 

93 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

They were not allowed to shorten their front and 
retire rapidly to a carefully prepared position 
that might give them a better fighting chance. 
Instead of being merely driven back, they were 
compelled to stand and take blow after blow. 

It must have been a terrifying and tragic mo- 
ment when it finally dawned upon Ludendorf and 
his henchmen that they had been out-generaled, 
and that the end could only be a question of weeks. 
The Germans could see too that Foch was able to 
pursue his relentless strategy without check be- 
cause of two blunders of their own: First, the 
terrible waste of men in their glorious spring 
drive; second, the coming of the despised Ameri- 
can troops, which had shifted the balance of man- 
power to the side of the Allies. 

With every day the condition of the enemy be- 
came more desperate. The soldiers who were see- 
ing their lines struck everywhere felt the help- 
lessness of their leaders and began to " think 
defeat." Many allowed themselves to be taken 
after only a half-hearted attempt at defense. The 
hammering method does not produce panic; it re- 
duces morale and power. 

On October 8, when Foch threw three British 
armies against the line between Cambrai and St. 

94 



"LE PATEON" 

Quentin, it was plain that the end was in sight. 
Five weeks later Germany had entirely collapsed, 
her armies driven from their defenses — Hinden- 
burg's wonderful series of "lines," which, like the 
water-tight compartments of a boat, were designed 
to give security during storm after storm of attack. 

Then came the great day when the representa- 
tives of the German people waited upon Marshal 
Foch at his headquarters to receive from him the 
terms upon which they might have an armistice. 
The master strategist who had led the foe to the 
point of defeat was the man who bade them sign 
the paper of surrender. 

General Foch has received many honors from 
his own country and from the Allies. As victor 
of the second battle of the Marne, he was, like 
JofTre, presented with the baton of a Marshal of 
France. When the end came there was no higher 
reward to bestow. But surely the man who held 
that "victory is a thing of the will," and that 
"it is only morally that a battle can be won," must 
have felt in that unconditional surrender of his 
country's foe his true reward. The will to win 
had triumphed. 



95 



THE "TIGEK" AS MAN OF VICTORY 
PREMIER CLEMENCEAU 



"We, women of France, mothers, wives, sisters of the brave 
soldiers of Normandy ... to you, tireless fighter, champion 
of justice, Frenchman and patriot, we appeal. We rally 
under your flag, the emblem of energy; we have faith in your 
standard." 

Petition of French Women to Clemenceau. 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

THERE was a man who earned the name of 
"Tiger" from his fellow countrymen, be- 
cause, it was said, he had "torn, clawed and bitten 
his way into power." He had attacked and over- 
thrown so many public servants of high office that 
he was called "Destroyer of Ministries," and 
"The Stormy Petrel of French Politics." Of all 
men he was easily first in the gentle art of making 
enemies. Yet it came to pass that in the time of 
her direst need, when France feared that treach- 
ery or weakness at home might bring defeat to 
her heroic armies at the front, when people said, 
"We must have a man whom all can without the 
shadow of a doubt trust to lead us through this 
war," the country turned with one accord to that 
destructive force, and said: "Clemenceau must 
be our Premier ! We know that he will make our 
government safe for victory!" 

How did it happen that the destroyer came to be 
hailed as the preserver? That is the story of the 
career of the Tiger of France. 

99 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

Georges Clemenceau was born September 28, 
1841, in a little village of Brittany. His father, a 
physician who cared more to give his skill to the 
poor than to work for the fees of the rich, was an 
ardent Republican whose days were embittered by 
seeing his country fall into the clutches of " Na- 
poleon the Little," as Victor Hugo styled the up- 
start ruler of the Second Empire. He loved truth 
and fair dealing; he also loved the fair face of 
Nature — the changes and surprises of sunlight and 
shadow among the trees, upon the water. In his 
leisure moments when he was not pondering over 
some weighty problem concerning the government 
of France or of the Universe, he was trying to 
catch with his palette of colors a bit of the beauty 
that gladdened his eyes. 

The intense soul of this father, who hated tyr- 
anny and shams no less fiercely than he loved the 
simple human heritage of quiet work and happy 
play of mind and heart, lighted kindred fires in the 
spirit of his son. When the lad was ten years of 
age his nature was stirred to the depths by seeing 
his wise, kindly father led away, handcuffed, to 
prison. He had dared to protest against the coup 
d'etat by which at one stroke the President, Louis 

100 



THE " TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

Napoleon, was exalted to the dizzy throne of Em- 
peror of France. 

The boy threw his arms about his father, whis- 
pering, "Some day I will avenge you, mon pere." 

"If you want to really accomplish that, you will 
have to work, you know," said the father, who 
could not return the embrace of his son save by a 
long look, as searching as it was tender. "Noth- 
ing comes of itself in this world; toil brings the 
harvests." 

The father could not, however, by his most 
searching look discover anything particularly 
promising in this son. He was not a good student ; 
at the age of sixteen he knew little more than many 
lads of twelve. For only one subject had he shown 
real enthusiasm, and that was for the study of 
English. 

"Why do you care more for English than for 
other things?" he was asked. 

"Because I want to read 'Robinson Crusoe' — all 
of it, just as it is — for myself," was the amazing 
reply. 

Then, at seventeen, the boy had a sudden awak- 
ening. It seemed as if all at once the windows of 
his mind were thrown open, and the sunshine of a 

101 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

world of interests came flooding in to warm and 
quicken him. He began to read everything 
eagerly, hungrily. The days were not long enough 
for all the splendid possibilities. If it is true that 
life is measured by one's points of contact with his 
environment, then young Clemenceau was very 
much alive, for there was no corner of existence 
without its interest for him. 

It is not surprising that at nineteen he should 
have decided without question that he was to be 
a doctor. How could he do better than to follow 
in the footsteps of his large-hearted, keen-minded 
father? The study of medicine, therefore, did not 
fill his days to the exclusion of all else. There 
was time for books and friends ; there was time for 
strolls about Paris, and, on a Sunday morning, 
for real wanderings out beyond the streets into 
the open country. "The thoughts of youth are 
long, long thoughts,' ' and Georges Clemenceau 's 
were given direction by the strong convictions of 
his " Jacobin' ' father. 

Perhaps he thought that the hour had come for 
him to defy the rule of kings, avenging his father 
and all other lovers of liberty. At any rate the 
little paper which he brought out with the help of 
Emile Zola and another radical companion was 

102 



THE "TIGEB" AS MAN OF VICTOEY 

called "Le Travail' ' (Work). Did he perhaps 
recall that his father had said on one memorable 
occasion that work alone could avenge him and 
further his cause? It would seem that this little 
sheet was not such a trifling "work" that it could 
be ignored, for it landed the three young cham- 
pions of human rights in prison. After a brief 
sojourn behind bars, this energetic disciple of 
medicine for the human body and democracy for 
the body politic, once more called down on his 
rash head the wrath of the imperial police by 
shouting "Vive la Republique!" from a point of 
vantage on an avenue of Paris when the gay city 
was celebrating one of the anniversaries of the 
fete-loving Second Empire. 

"If you care so much for a republic that you 
don't know when to hold your peace you might go 
to America — the air and the ideas there may be 
more to your liking," he was told meaningly. 

In brief, young Clemenceau found himself an 
exile, but instead of repining he seized the op- 
portunity to make a study of the social institu- 
tions of Great Britain and the United States. He 
took with him to America his degree in medicine, 
some letters to Horace Greeley, and an alert in- 
terest in the conditions resulting from the Civil 

103 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

War. "My first impression of Americans," he 
said, "is that they have excellent particular con- 
victions, but no general ideas and no good cof- 
fee." 

Settling first in New York in 1865, he put out 
his doctor 's shingle, and while waiting for a chance 
to practice, wrote for "Le Temps" a series of 
articles at once brisk and thoughtful, describing 
phases of the social and political life in America. 

"I used to spend more time in the Astor Library 
than in my professional habitat on West Twelfth 
Street, where it was neither pleasant nor profitable 
to merely wait for patients — the virtue of patience 
is one for which I have never been particularly 
noted," said M. Clemenceau, his dark eyes light- 
ing up with a smile which showed that he took 
some pleasure in his English pun. He became, in- 
deed, remarkably proficient in the language, which 
he handled in the American fashion, and really 
well acquainted with American institutions and 
ideals. 

There was one institution — a young ladies' 
seminary at Stamford, Connecticut — in which he 
took an especial interest for more than one rea- 
son. It meant for him first — what he needed 
sorely at that time — a certain income. It meant 

104 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

for the young ladies a series of talks on French 
Literature and conversations with a professor who 
could be witty and fascinating in two languages. 
It meant for the canny schoolmistress an oppor- 
tunity for agreeable economy, since the French in- 
structor was also a proficient riding master. 
"Imagine the Tiger of France cantering across 
country with a bevy of charming American 
mademoiselles, just out of school for a holiday 
afternoon. That was certainly a time when one 
might have seen a smile on the face of the Tiger ! ' ' 
said an appreciative Frenchman. We may con- 
clude that the young professor was not wanting in 
appreciation, for when he returned to France in 
1870 he took with him an American bride — one 
of the fair pupils from the seminary. 

The most spirited dialogues in class or on horse- 
back could hardly have prepared young Madame 
Clemenceau for the France to which she was in- 
troduced. Those were tense, stirring times that 
Paris knew at the close of the war with Prussia, 
and Clemenceau, who had settled in the feverishly 
radical district of Montmartre, was from the first 
in the midst of the excitement. A former com- 
rade, who now was a member of the Government of 
National Defense, promptly nominated the re- 

105 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

turned exile mayor of Montmartre, and he at once 
proved himself in the turmoil of public affairs one 
to the manner born. He had strong convictions, 
and a sincerity and power in presenting them that 
carried conviction to others. 

"One felt that he had thought things out — he 
knew where he stood and why. Besides he cared 
enough about a matter and had resolution enough, 
to stand his ground no matter what came or went. 
It was that strength of purpose that made him a 
power in politics," it was said. 

In 1871, he was chosen member of the National 
Assembly by 96,000 votes. The son of the 
" Jacobin' ' physician of Brittany had shown that 
he could work, and fight too, for the cause of the 
people. He was distinctly the man of the hour 
in the camp of the radicals. 

Something occurred at this time which stirred 
the people's candidate more profoundly than had 
anything since the day when he saw his father led 
away to prison. He saw his beloved country bereft 
of two of her fairest daughter-provinces — Alsace 
and Lorraine. Bitterly, desperately, he opposed 
the treaty that gave this sacred soil of France into 
the keeping of the enemy. It seemed that the 
patriotic soul of Georges Clemenceau received its 

106 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

baptism in the fiery trial of that time. His love 
for France became the great passion of his life. 

Years afterward, Clemenceau, the Premier-pilot 
of the good ship, "Victory," tried to tell about a 
moment when those who had suffered greatly 
through the war were moved by the mighty love 
of country out of themselves — beyond the thought 
of their sorrows and hardships. "There they 
were — " he said, "men, hats off, motionless as 
statues, proud of becoming great through their 
children. Mothers, with seared faces, superbly 
stoic under the eye of the greater maternity of the 
great country. The children in the ecstasy of 
feeling about them something greater than they 
can understand, but already certain that they will 
understand some day this immortal hour. And 
not a cry, not a word sounds in the air, nothing 
but the great silence of the courage of all of them. 
Then every one goes away, firm and erect, to a 
glorious destiny. In every heart La France has 
passed." Do we not divine in the intense feeling 
of these words something of the ardent patriotism 
that thrilled every fibre of his being? In his 
heart, too, La France had passed. 

Only a faithful lover of country and a stanch 
champion of democracy could have kept his ideals 

107 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

of both undimmed and undiminished during the 
period that followed the downfall of the Second 
Empire and the siege of Paris. As the excesses 
of the Reign of Terror had succeeded the reign of 
the Bourbons, so the bloody Commune avenged 
the extravagances and follies of Napoleon III. 
Clemenceau's district of Montmartre was the 
very storm centre of mob violence and terrorism. 
Thither, the French President, Thiers, who had 
been chosen head of the restored Republic, dis- 
patched some troops of the regular army under 
the Generals Lecomte and Clement-Thomas. In 
the wild riot that ensued the two commanders were 
shot. Political opponents of M. Clemenceau, who 
feared his growing influence, at once seized upon 
this tragedy to bring about his downfall. For once 
the radical leader deigned to speak at length in his 
own defense : 

"They accused me of being an accomplice in the 
murder of the Generals — a deliberate falsehood," 
he declared with flashing eyes. "This is what 
really happened. Two hundred prisoners, whom 
I had to protect against popular fury, were con- 
fined in the town-hall the day of the murder of 
the Generals. I could know nothing of what was 
going on outside. I heard in a neighboring square 

108 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

gay music accompanying the tramp of marching 
troops. I believed that General Thomas was 
safely out of France and I knew that General Le- 
comte was a prisoner at Chateaurouge, but under 
the care of brave and determined men. About 
three o 'clock in the afternoon a captain came run- 
ning up and told me that the two generals had 
been led to a neighboring house and were in great 
and imminent danger. My duty was to rush to 
their assistance; but who would take care of my 
prisoners! There happened to be in my office 
one of my young friends, a student ; to him I dele- 
gated my powers and made him per interim Mayor 
of Montmartre and hurried out, followed by the 
Captain. However, some one stopped me and 
said: ' There is no need of going further. You 
are too late. All is done.' Around me I saw 
looks of hatred ; I heard angry cries and shouts of 
* Treason! Treason!' They believed that I was 
following the bloody policy of M. Thiers. I was 
carried along, buffeted by the crowd, threatened 
with fists and revolvers, and it took me an hour 
to retrace my ten-minute walk from the Mairie." 
Nevertheless Clemenceau kept his faith in the 
free rule of a free people, though he believed that 
growth could only come through strenuous en- 

109 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

deavor and struggle. It was as if the words he 
had heard when a boy "Nothing comes of itself 
in this world ; toil brings the harvests, ' ' found an 
echo in the convictions of the man. "There is no 
rest for free peoples," he said. "Rest is a mon- 
archic idea. The people know no rest. If French 
democracy is ripe for self-government it will no 
longer know rest nor the peace of silence.' ' 

Clemenceau, who was chosen President of the 
Municipal Council in 1875, and in the following 
year elected member of the Chamber of Deputies, 
was from that time forward the determined and 
fearless leader of the most advanced party of the 
French Government. 

Since he was a servant of the people and of his 
country, he tried to keep the public in touch with 
what concerned them and the honor and glory of 
France. His papers "La Justice," "L'Aurore" 
and later "L'Homme Libre" were read for the 
keen, direct criticisms and interpretations of the 
vital issues of the moment given in his leading 
editorials. We may say that his influence through 
his speeches and debates, and with the wider public 
who hung upon his printed words, was due to the 
clear-cut, positive character of all he said. He 

110 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

never hedged, qualified, nor veiled liis statements 
with half -negations. 

"He isn't planning to change his position to- 
morrow," people said. "He 's an honest man, if 
a hard one. We can be sure of one politician who 
puts love of country before gain; he does n't care 
how many enemies he makes if he can bring to 
pass the right thing." 

His opponents called him a "parliamentary 
swashbuckler, without principles and without 
prejudices." But he kept on, serenely secure in 
the faith that, while petty politicians have their 
little day and "there is no rest for free peoples," 
still democracy is safe since it is impossible to de- 
lude all the people all the time. 

To one of his ardent champions who protested 
against a particularly bitter attack upon the hon- 
esty of his chief, M. Clemenceau said: 

"My young friend, when one has heard for 
many years under his windows the cry ' Demandez 
le suicide de M. Clemenceau! 9 there must be in life 
certain things which leave one perfectly indiffer- 
ent." 

He had faith that honest purpose would prove 
itself and that deeds would speak when words were 

111 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

forgotten. His impatience with speech-making 
when the time had come for action is shown in 
the address of classic brevity with which he opened 
the Allied Conference at Paris: 

"Gentlemen, we are here to work. Let ns 
work. ' ' 

Was it because Clemenceau was determined to 
prove that "there is no rest for free peoples" by 
keeping things continually at fever heat, that he 
attacked the victims of his censure without fear or 
mercy and won the name of "the Tiger"? The 
people came to feel that it was because he loved 
France better than any consideration of self-in- 
terest, and that he dared everything in her serv- 
ice. They said: "It is always something that is 
wrong or weak or stupid that he attacks — some- 
thing that another man less keen or zealous would 
shrug his shoulders over and let pass. Clemen- 
ceau, the tiger of politicians, is the watch-dog of 
France!" 

Men, wise in the weather signs of political possi- 
bilities, said: "Clemenceau is without doubt the 
strongest man in public life, but he has made too 
many enemies to ever come into power." 

In 1906, however, he was appointed Minister 
of the Interior, and in the same year Prime Min- 

112 




Photograph by Press Illustrating Service, Ino. 

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU 
Premier of France 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

ister. For a moment his enemies were silenced, 
but when he went out of power three years later 
they exulted confidently : "That is the last of the 
swashbuckler!" 

But it came to pass, as we have seen, that at 
the time of the greatest crisis France had ever 
known, the call of the people was so strong and so 
insistent, that President Poincaire, (who had fre- 
quently been the subject of attack in the Tiger's 
editorials) asked M. Clemenceau to once again 
take the helm as Premier. The call came also di- 
rectly, pleadingly, from the people. Some of the 
appeals touched the veteran statesman pro- 
foundly; it was a very mild "Tiger" indeed who 
read the petition of the women of Normandy: 

"We, women of France, mothers, wives, sisters 
of the brave soldiers of Normandy, profoundly in- 
dignant at the scandal of the treachery of those 
who strike our brave loved ones in the back while 
offering their blood so valiantly to our dear native 
land, — to you, tireless fighter, champion of justice, 
Frenchman and patriot, we appeal. We rally un- 
der your flag, the emblem of energy ; we have faith 
in your standard." 

On the day of November, 1917, when the new 
Premier — "the best hated statesman of the Re- 

113 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

public' ' and the best trusted — arose to make his 
statement in the Chamber of Deputies, it seemed as 
if the country fairly held its breath. "The 
Tiger ' ' himself was visibly moved. The dark eyes 
in the yellow-ivory face smouldered with an in- 
tenser fire, and it seemed as if one could see the 
lips under the drooping gray mustache whiten. 

"I am almost afraid to think what is expected 
of me, ' ' he said. ' ' But this you know : I am an old 
man. I have nothing to gain for myself by being 
where I am. My one thought is for France, 
bloody in her glory. What are my war aims, you 
ask. I have only one — to win!" 

The people were electrified. The passion of in- 
tense purpose that quivered in his face, in his 
voice, stirred their hearts and strengthened the will 
to win. Victory seemed near. 

France, "bloody in her glory," held her head 
high, facing the future with confidence. The en- 
ergy and optimism of the man at the helm had 
heartened all of the people at a time when enemies 
abroad and traitors at home had sown tlie tares 
of " defeatism' ' on every hand. 

One wondered perhaps now and again if the 
former leader of the opposition, who had pro- 
tested against the press censorship in political 

114 



THE " TIGER' ' AS MAN OF VICTORY 

matters by changing the name of his paper 
"L 'Homme Libre" (The Free Man) to 
"L 'Homme Enchaine" (The Man in Irons), 
might have liked a little freedom from instant 
comment and criticism now that he was at the 
post of command. The paper founded and made 
famous by him was once more appearing under 
the name "L 'Homme Libre," and all other publi- 
cations were free from censorship save in military 
matters. There were, of course, many who ques- 
tioned and attacked the measures of the new Pre- 
mier. Before long, however, his vigorous, fearless 
policy and his genius for administration brought 
results that justified the faith of the people and 
silenced his political enemies. 

One of his first acts was to bring to justice Cail- 
laux, (at one time Premier and for several terms 
Minister of Finance), and other arch-traitors to 
France who had been tools and accomplices of 
German agents in spreading propaganda of pes- 
simism and "defeatism," designed to lead France 
and Italy to make an immediate peace. Evidence 
that certain men prominent in the world of busi- 
ness and finance had received money from Count 
von Bernstorff, former German ambassador to 
Washington, for the subsidizing of newspapers, 

115 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

had been unearthed in America; but two succes- 
sive Ministers of the Interior failed to take any 
decisive action. Caillaux and his fellow conspira- 
tors had too many friends among the rich and 
powerful. It was in this stress that the people 
had turned to Clemenceau, confident in his loyalty 
to France and his fearless honesty. Caillaux had 
been, indeed, a former political colleague and 
closely associated with him in many matters of 
policy. When Clemenceau was made Premier in 
1906 he had selected Caillaux as Minister of Fi- 
nance. Now he was the one man on whom the 
country could rely to hunt down this dangerous 
conspirator, and to stamp out his plots. The 
" Tiger' ' was truly the watch-dog of France. 

Clemenceau brought to his task as administrator 
a solid knowledge of statecraft garnered through 
many years from the time when as a youth he had 
dreamed of serving the cause of the people. His 
studies in England and America had given him 
grasp and perspective. It will be remembered 
that he had followed closely the drama of politics 
in the United States during the period of Recon- 
struction following the Civil War. He recalled 
frequently many interesting phases of the history 
of that time, painting a vivid picture of the first 

116 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

meeting of Virginia's negro legislature. All of 
the trials and changes that marked the course of 
events during the troublous Third Republic of 
France had left their impress. Endowed with a 
remarkably tenacious memory, he seemed to de- 
rive his power as a statesman as much from his 
practical assimilation of the results of experience, 
which meant vitality and breadth of grasp, as 
from his unflagging zeal in attacking the various 
factors of the immediate situation that confronted 
him. 

Chosen in the dark moment of crisis of warring 
hopes and fears, Clemenceau justified the faith of 
his countrymen by steering a straight course to 
a reasonable, fortified optimism and the port of 
Victory. The ' ' Tiger ' ' was so absolutely the man 
of the hour that it was hard to even imagine the 
time when France did not have the assurance of 
his strong hand at the helm. ' ' He so fits the place 
and the needs of the country, that it seems as if 
he has been there always,' ' people said. "The 
former time is like a half -forgotten nightmare.' ' 

I like to picture the Premier among the soldiers. 
As chairman of the Senate Army Committee and 
as a journalist he had often gone to the front and 
mingled freely with the men, who adored him. 

117 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

As Prime Minister he went even oftener. Peo- 
ple marvelled at the inexhaustible energy of the 
man; for he seemed always at the front and yet 
never away from Paris. One of the trenches was 
named Le Tigre in his honor, and when his fa- 
miliar gray, mud-stained motor made its way back 
to the city there was often tucked away in it some 
token of a poilu's devotion — a pipe, perhaps, or 
a walking-stick, lovingly carved by one of "his 
children." 

Frequently the officers remonstrated with him 
for rashly exposing himself to danger. He even 
refused to wear a steel helmet until the men about 
him doffed theirs. Then, protesting and scolding, 
he consented to protect the head that was guiding 
the destinies of France. 

"As if my bald pate mattered!" he said, look- 
ing for a long moment, Hamlet-like, at a heap of 
the slain. "My old carcass there? What an end 
it would be !" 

Always a lover of Nature, the Premier finds rest 
and renewal of strength in the garden of his Paris 
home. "He will always be young because his in- 
terests are so keen," said one of his friends. "It 
is impossible to even imagine the indifference that 
is age creeping upon him. In his make-up the 

118 



THE "TIGER" AS MAN OF VICTORY 

temperament of the artist and the spirit of the sci- 
entist are perfectly blended. Feeling and under- 
standing go hand in hand. ' ' 

As Clemenceau talks about his flowers, his 
chickens, Japanese art, or the great moment when 
General Foch was put in command of the armies, 
he is interesting and delightful, but when he talks 
about the soldiers of France he is another man. 
His piercing eyes become tender; voice and ges- 
ture alike betray the depth of his feeling. 

He is describing a visit to the trenches: "We 
go down into the ground,' ' he says, "and there 
we are protected from the 'marmites' in a dark 
corridor lit by candles stuck into the mouths of 
German gas masks. We sit down on anything 
handy (I even have the favor of a chair), before 
a board which also serves as the colonel's bed, 
while arms whose body remains invisible serve us 
with dishes not to be disdained by a gormand. 
How did they get there? I cannot undertake to 
explain that. The walk in the open air, the tragic 
nature of the place, the joy in land reconquered, 
no doubt all lend particular spice to the comrade- 
ship of these men who forget that they have done 
great deeds as soon as they have done them." 

They say that the name of the "Tiger" cannot 
119 



FIGHTEKS FOR PEACE 

now be properly applied to the Man of Victory. 
His great constructive work for France, his whole- 
hearted tenderness for the soldiers — for all who 
have suffered through the war — have left no room 
for thought of the tearing and rending of political 
strife. He no longer seems the embodiment of 
the France of bitter rivalry and struggle, but of 
the old France of romance and beauty, the new 
France of strength and heroism, the undying 
France of glory and power. He will be remem- 
bered not as the " Tiger/ ' but as the lover of 
France and the Premier of Victory. 



120 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS: 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 



There are rare epochs in the history of the world when in a 
few raging years the character, the destiny of the whole race, is 
determined for unknown ages. This is one. The winter wheat 
is being sown. It is better, it is surer, it is more bountiful in 
its harvest, than when it is sown in the soft spring time. 
There are many storms to pass through, there are many frosts 
to endure, before the land brings forth its green promise. But 
let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall 
reap if we faint not. 

David Lloyd George. 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

WHEN David Lloyd George, then an eager, 
alert, young candidate for the law, went 
to London to present himself for his final examina- 
tion, he heard his first debate in Parliament. 
Gladstone had made a stirring, impassioned speech 
that completely cowed the Opposition leaders into 
silence; it seemed as if nothing more could be 
said. Then a slender young member arose, strode 
into the middle of the floor, snapped his fingers in 
the face of the Grand Old Man, and scornfully, 
vigorously, assailed his position. "I hated him 
for it," said Mr. Lloyd George years afterward, 
"I hated him, but I felt it was fine; it was splen- 
did.' ' 

There spoke the man who dearly loved a fight 
for its own sake as well as for its cause. The 
greater the difficulty, the more powerful the ad- 
versary, the better he liked it. It was to him the 
real measure of a man and of the integrity of his 
convictions. 

" Indifference is the great foe," he used to say. 
123 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

"It is easier to let things alone than to bother 
about changing them. That is at bottom why all 
sorts of evils hold sway. Nobody cares enough 
to do anything. Then along comes a man with 
a strong conviction or two ; he knows instinctively 
that the only way to get anything done is to raise 
a row. And being the sort that never runs away, 
he plunges in and wins." 

Two years before the occasion of the Gladstone 
debate, on his first visit to the House of Commons, 
the lad of nineteen felt sure that he would one day 
have a place there. He wrote in his diary : 
"Went to the Houses of Parliament. Grand 
buildings outside, but inside very crabbed, small 
and suffocating, especially the House of Commons. 
I will not say but I eyed the assembly in a spirit 
similar to that in which William the Conqueror 
eyed England on his visit to Edward the Confessor 
as the region of his future domain. O vanity!" 

It was more than ambition, however, stirring 
within the young Welshman that made him sure 
of his calling. There was also a very strong and 
definite resolution. For the two great passions of 
his soul — love of humanity and hatred of every 
form of tyranny and oppression — were strong 
within him even as a child, and when he arrived 

124 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

at man's estate his work was waiting for him. 

David Lloyd George was born January 17, 1863, 
in Manchester, England, where his Welsh father 
had gone to try his success at teaching. But not 
finding the opportunity for happy work and study 
of which he had dreamed, he turned back to the 
soil, hoping to regain his health and have more 
time for his books than there had been in the 
smoky city. He had hardly made his new start, 
however, when a sudden illness carried him away 
from his little family. . . . David's earliest mem- 
ory was of a crowd gathered about his home. All 
their household goods — tables, chairs and beds — 
were piled out of doors with the plows, harrows, 
and other things that his father had used on the 
farm. How strange and pitiful they looked there 
in a heap on the grass ! There was a noisy man 
standing by pointing at them, and then people 
began to carry them off. The light in the child's 
dark blue eyes changed from fear to anger as 
he saw some one pick up his favorite chair. With 
his sister's help he began to put stones under 
the gate to keep the people from getting out with 
all the things of their little world. 

He was only three years old and he could not 
understand what it all meant, but he knew that 

125 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

his mother was very unhappy. He was sad, too, 
and lonely without his father. Then in the midst 
of their trouble came his uncle, Richard Lloyd, 
and somehow the world seemed a safe, warm place 
again. 

"You are all coming to make a home with me — 
for me," he said to his sister. 

It was a happy home in the little village of 
North Wales between the mountains and the sea. 
The cottage, made of stones taken from the fields, 
seemed truly a part of that beautiful land of 
craggy peaks, green meadows, and sparkling 
streams. It is small wonder that this seemed to 
David God's own country, and its sturdy people 
the very elect of the earth. For the boy's pas- 
sionate love of mountains and glens was never a 
thing apart from his love of people. Like the 
Scotch poet he held that "an honest man 's the 
noblest work of God"; and down deep in his heart 
he believed that Welsh people were a bit truer 
as well as a bit cleverer than other people. 

Next to the cottage was the little shop with the 
sign "Richard Lloyd, Shoemaker " swinging over 
the door. His uncle was truly a wonderful man; 
he seemed to tower over all the other people as 
Snowdon rose over the other mountains. While 

126 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

he hammered away at his bench — for it took steady- 
work to provide for three hungry children — he 
yet found time to take an interest in the joys and 
sorrows of his neighbors. ... A farmer lad who 
was in disgrace for trapping a hare came in for 
counsel and comfort. It seemed that all the wild 
creatures of wood and field belonged exclusively 
to the squire, who cared more for his rights to 
the game than for the people who lived on his 
land. Another came to tell of his hard work to 
improve the soil and repair his house, and then 
how he had been told to leave the farm because 
he had refused to vote as the squire wished. It 
seemed that there were some people of privilege 
— people who could not even speak Welsh — who 
yet had the power to order all the ways of Welsh- 
men, to tell them what to do, where to go to church 
and how to vote. 

David was very proud of his uncle because he 
did not go to the church where the clergyman 
read prayers in English, but instead went to his 
own chapel at Criccieth, a mile distant. No one 
knew more about the Bible than his "Uncle Eich- 
ard, and no one knew more about the ways of the 
Government. Every evening David walked to 
Criccieth to get a copy of the Liverpool paper, 

127 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

and as he marched home, breathing in the air 
that had the tang of the ocean as well as the 
freshness of the mountains, he read with eager 
excitement the news of the war between Russia 
and Turkey; but when he got home and his uncle 
read the accounts of the debates in Parliament, 
that seemed even more interesting. He followed 
the fortunes of the big bills as if they were battles 
where the leaders of the parties were the generals. 
He gathered that the landowners were mostly Con- 
servatives, that they wished to conserve the cus- 
toms of the past with all their privileges of the 
present ; and he knew that the Liberals were those 
who thought some changes were necessary in order 
to give the poor people a chance. 

In 1868, there was an exciting election in that 
little corner of Wales ; for the first time a Liberal 
carried the day. Then as an aftermath came no- 
tices to a number of the independent voters to 
quit their farms, for, so the papers read, "it is 
not right you should allow yourself to be led by 
others to vote against the interests of the estate 
on which you live and against the wishes of his 
lordship. ' ' 

The memory of that glorious triumph when he 
had carried a flag and shouted himself hoarse was 

128 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

not more vivid in the child *s mind than the tragedy 
which succeeded it of men turned out on the road- 
side because they had dared to vote as they 
thought right. That was, as he often said, his 
first memory of politics. 

"The village smithy was my first parliament," 
he said. "Here we gathered on winter evenings 
in the red glow of the fire to discuss all the prob- 
lems of Wales and her neighbors in this world 
and the next. ' ' 

One can easily picture the scene, — the elderly 
smith, like a Druid majestic in his strength, and 
sitting about in the firelight the group of villagers 
discussing the daily news, religion and politics, 
and, when their spirits were high, taking up the 
refrain of one of the stirring Welsh airs. Is it 
any wonder that David, a boy who early gave 
proof of a keen mind and a quick wit, should have 
been much influenced by the talk of these stalwart 
men whose convictions came at white heat from 
the forge of hard experience? 

Sometimes the magic of the firelight cast its 
spell on the imagination as the legends of Wales 
were told and the odes of the bards recited. There 
was the story of the Crags of the Eagles in whose 
shadow they lived. . . . Vortigern, an ancient 

129 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

King of Britain, it was said, tried to build a 
stronghold on that spot but the stones refused 
to cleave together. Then the wizard, Merlin, bade 
him dig deep below the spot of his wall to find 
the reason of his defeat. There they discovered 
two sleeping dragons, one white and the other 
red. The first, Merlin said, was the symbol of 
the invading Saxons, while the other stood for 
the race of Britain. So it is that to this day the 
red dragon is the emblem of Wales, signifying 
its individual strength that refuses to be swal- 
lowed up or absorbed by any other nation. . . . 
The legends declared, too, that many heroes would 
come from the land of the Eagles to the defense 
of the fair hills and the green valleys of Wales. 
David may have dreamed that he was of the eagle 
brood ; at any rate he knew that some day he would 
fight valiantly for the rights of his country. So 
it was that David Lloyd George, champion of 
the Welsh National Party, and defender of the 
downtrodden poor against class privilege and op- 
pression, came into his own. 

Before David had completed the course that the 
village school offered, Richard Lloyd had faced 
the question of his future. He knew that he had 
an exceptionally able lad in his keeping. "The 

130 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

boy must have a chance,' ' he said to his sister. 
"He should by rights be a lawyer. I have a bit 
of money laid by against the time I am too old 
to work at my bench ; that will serve to start our 
David on his way." 

But it was a long road to qualifying as a solici- 
tor, and there were many fees; the money would 
not stretch over all the demands. Kichard Lloyd 
saw the need of still further effort. Valiantly 
he set himself to work with grammars and exer- 
cise books to master the rudiments of Latin and 
French in order that he might himself serve as 
instructor to his nephew. Bravely they struggled 
on together, and, when David was twenty-one 
and the uncle's little pile of savings all spent, the 
end for which they had labored was at hand. He 
passed with honors his examinations and was en- 
rolled as solicitor. There was only one lack — 
three guineas to buy his lawyer's robe without 
which he could not appear in the local courts. 
"That is nothing," said David. "A few weeks' 
humble work in an office shall furnish my garment 
of dignity. ' ' 

Young Lloyd George was an immediate success 
as a solicitor. He really cared about his cases 
and his clients, and he threw himself into his work 

131 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

with energy and ardor. His keen mind at once 
seized the essential features and his ready wit 
enabled him to make the most of each point. At 
twenty-five he awoke to find himself famous for 
his daring and successful handling of a case that 
had attracted wide attention. He had proved him- 
self a true champion of the poor against unreason- 
able customs and petty tyrannies. 

Two years later, Lloyd George was sent to repre- 
sent his home district in Parliament, defeating 
the squire of the countryside to whom as a boy 
he had deferentially touched his cap. Many said 
at the time, "The young upstart has had his little 
day. He thinks that his local success proves him 
a leader, but as he has gone up like a rocket he 
must come down like a stick." But the boy who 
at nineteen had looked down from the gallery at 
the House of Commons as the field of his future 
domain, knew that his career had only begun. 

Lloyd George's early years in Parliament were 
in the main stormy ones. It seemed to many that 
he was desperately seeking notoriety by his rebel 
attitude even towards the leaders of his own party. 
A Liberal himself, he again and again dared to 
put himself and his championship of Wales to 
the fore against the leadership of the mighty Glad- 

132 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

stone. And later when Joseph Chamberlain was 
the party chief, he moved that man of steel to 
wrath on more than one occasion. 

It is only in the light of Lloyd George's whole 
career that we can judge aright those insurgent 
years when he seemed moved by "the imp of the 
perverse' ' to give as much trouble as possible. 
He was a man with a mission. Knowing as he 
did the wrongs of the poor, realizing how they 
were bound down by laws and customs which 
served the interests of those at the top, he was 
all afire with zeal to bring about some changes 
that would strike sn the root of existing injustices. 
For instance the people of Wales should not be 
compelled to support an expensive established 
church, which they, as members of various other 
religious bodies, did not want. There should be 
home rule for Wales in order that all of her affairs 
might be directed by those immediately concerned. 
There should be better educational opportunities 
for the mass of the people. There should be read- 
justment of the burden of taxation which rested 
most heavily on those least able to bear it. These 
were some of the things for which he fought in 
season and out, for he could not abide leisurely, 
routine procedure when he was so fiercely alive 

133 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

to the needs of the people he had known all his 
life. And while he was looked upon by the leaders, 
who were working to carry out what they con- 
sidered a safe and sane program for the welfare 
of the nation, as a most presumptuous and un- 
comfortable member, his influence began to be felt. 
It was generally conceded that he was a force to 
be reckoned with. 

During those years of struggle Lloyd George 
was growing. While ever an ardent champion of 
Wales, he was able now to see beyond the horizon 
of local interests and embrace in his sympathies 
the problems that concerned the country at large. 
It was soon evident, moreover, that he was able 
to take a still broader view, and consider the 
affairs of his nation in relation to the rights of 
other peoples. His attitude at the time of the 
Boer War showed this larger understanding and 
at the same time proved that his sympathy with 
the under dog was stronger than any self interest. 

For a time Lloyd George was the best hated 
man in England. He dared to declare that his 
country was wrong in making war against a 
small, struggling people even though there had 
been much cause for provocation. He showed that 
his patriotism was not of the kind that says "My 

134 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

country always, right or wrong !" But feeling 
was running high in England just then, and in 
the heat of the moment he could only seem a 
traitor to the land that had nurtured him. When 
he dared to appear in the home town of Cham- 
berlain to attack his war policy the fury of the 
people passed all bounds. A riot ensued and the 
rash Welshman narrowly escaped a violent end 
by getting out of the hall in the clothes of a police- 
man, who found that only in this way was the 
protection of the law of any avail. The general 
feeling may be indicated by a remark made to 
Mr. Chamberlain. 

"So your friends were not able to get rid of 
Lloyd George the other night,' ' said a member 
of the House in passing his chief in the lobby. 

"What is everybody's business is nobody's 
business," replied Mr. Chamberlain with a real 
glint in his eyes. 

The sure place that this unpopular statesman 
held with his own people was proved by the fact 
that he was reelected in the very midst of the 
general hue and cry. The public gasped. They 
wouldn't have expected that even of an obscure 
little corner like Wales. And it was not long 
before another surprise was upon them. The 

135 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

new Liberal Premier, Sir Henry Campbell-Banner- 
man, picked out Lloyd George for one of the 
minor positions in his cabinet — president of the 
Board of Trade. What conld a sane man be 
thinking about to put an untamed free-lance and 
hotblood like Lloyd George in any post of respon- 
sibility? 

"We must have new blood — men who will not 
be afraid to blaze new trails," said the Prime 
Minister. 

It was soon evident that they had such a man 
in the little Welshman. He proved unexpectedly 
that he was something more than an agitator — a 
man who could think things out clearly to a finish 
and then work ahead until something was actually 
done. It seemed that he was capable of solid, 
constructive work; and that, moreover, he could 
deal with people in a new way. Belligerency had 
given place to tact and courtesy. His skill in 
handling a labor crisis which threatened to tie up 
all the railroads in the United Kingdom won for 
him general acclaim. Facing the question fairly 
from the standpoint of the needs of the country 
as well as that of the rights of the workers, he 
threw himself into the breach with a fervor and 

136 



Photograph by International Film Service, Inc. 

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
Premier of Great Britain 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

persuasive reasonableness that won concessions 
from both sides. 

The old daring originality was, however, by no 
means lost in the sober effectiveness of the new 
minister's work. It was said that under his con- 
trol the office was proving not only the most active 
but also the most interesting position in the cab- 
inet. But even so, the public was hardly prepared 
for the next step. When Campbell-Bannerman 
died in 1908, his successor, Mr. Asquith, promoted 
Lloyd George to the position of Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, the post of second importance in the 
cabinet. 

It was a sudden, dazzling honor, but I do not 
think it was that which brought the gleam to the 
dark blue eyes of the shoemaker's boy. At last 
he was to have an opportunity to really better 
the condition of the people from whom he sprang, 
whose needs he felt as did no other leader. 

This is the way he went about his reforms: 
As Chancellor he was called upon to prepare a 
Budget of the public money to be expended, and 
a schedule of taxation to meet this outlay. Lloyd 
George's Budget of 1909 was an affair of such 
far-reaching importance that it not only intro- 

137 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

duced some radical measures like old age pensions 
and workmen's insurance against illness and un- 
employment, but it shifted a large part of the 
burden of taxes on to the rich by greatly increas- 
ing the rate on large incomes, inheritances, land 
profits, and coal mines. In concluding his ex- 
planation of his scheme, Mr. Lloyd George said: 
"This, Mr. Chairman, is a war Budget. It is 
for raising money to wage war against poverty. 
I cannot help hoping and believing that before 
this generation has passed away we shall have 
advanced a great step toward that good time when 
poverty and wretchedness, and the human deg- 
radation which always follows in their camp, will 
be as remote from the people of this country as 
the wolves which once infested its forests.' ' 

The next day all England was talking of the 
amazing Chancellor. The laboring classes hailed 
him as a Daniel ; the well-to-do classes called him 
a pick-pocket. Thinking the country was with 
them, the House of Lords decided to put on a 
bold front and kill the Budget, but by so doing 
they signed their own death warrant. The cab- 
inet was dissolved and another election called. 
Then the Lords found themselves not only obliged 
to pass the hated Budget, but also compelled to 

138 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

assent to a bill forfeiting a large part of their 
ancient privileges. Never again could they hold 
up a bill passed by the elected representatives 
of the people; and, moreover, any bill passed by 
three sessions of the Commons might become a 
law over their heads. The will of the people was 
to rule. And the man who had made England 
' i safe for democracy'' was Lloyd George. 

Then came the World War. When Belgium was 
invaded England entered the field on the side of 
outraged humanity. Freedom should not perish 
from the earth. But at first all did not face the 
situation fairly; to some it seemed that England 
might well hold aloof, keeping in her own pleasant 
ways of peace and prosperity. Some of the cab- 
inet ministers resigned, and everybody waited for 
Lloyd George to follow their lead. They remem- 
bered his speeches at the time of the Boer War; 
he was a peace-at-any-price man, they said. 
Many exulted, "Now we shall be rid forever of 
the firebrand." One peer promised the people 
on his estate that he would celebrate with them 
the day Lloyd George stepped down by a barbecue. 
Other people shook their heads; "If he goes the 
country will lose a tremendous power, ' 9 they said. 
But Lloyd George did not resign. Still everybody 

139 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

waited in suspense for a word from him ; and when 
it was announced that he was to speak it seemed 
as if the whole city tried to get within hearing. 
That night the peace-loving Welshman gave the 
most rousing call-to-arms that England had heard. 

" There is no man," he said, "who has always 
regarded the prospect of engaging in a great war 
with greater reluctance than I have done through 
all my political life. There is no man more con- 
vinced that we could not have avoided it now 
without dishonor. ' ' He went on with all his might 
pouring out the vials of his wrath upon the war- 
makers who were marching over the rights of a 
helpless little nation. He spoke of the riotous 
meeting when the war party at home had threat- 
ened him violence. "At that meeting," he said, 
"I tried to stand against the idea that great and 
powerful empires ought to have the right to crush 
small nationalities. I might have been right, or 
I might have been wrong, but the principle which 
drove me to resist even our own country is the 
one that has brought me here to support my coun- 
try." 

But it was not only by his speeches that Lloyd 
George was fighting. As Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer he sent out an appeal to the leading finan- 

140 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

ciers of the country: "This country is thrown 
into financial chaos," he said. "I want the assist- 
ance of the best brains of expert people. I want 
you to give me your help as to the best way of 
putting things straight. ' f 

Then a dramatic thing happened. The men 
who had most berated the wicked Budget went to 
confer quietly with its creator. They found them- 
selves talking freely with one who was frankly 
eager to be instructed. Then, seizing the essen- 
tial points with his usual clear-headedness, the 
Finance Minister went out and told the people 
about the confusion that war had brought to the 
banks and business houses, and the need of spe- 
cial measures to tide them over. It was all ex- 
plained so clearly that a child could comprehend. 
Now all the men of finance were calling down bless- 
ings on the head of Lloyd George. It was seen 
that the bold and original methods that he devised 
had gone to the core of the difficulty and warded 
off a business crisis that would have served the 
enemy as well as a defeat in the field. 

Everybody knows how disheartening the first 
year of the war was. Why could not the Allies 
with their combined might effect more and bring 
the struggle to a swift conclusion? Lloyd George 

141 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

was one of those who faced the problem squarely : 
He saw that while there was no lack of brave sol- 
diers there was pitiful lack of proper munitions. 
The men had no way of replying in kind to the 
high explosive shells of the enemy. He saw that 
the old over-cautious, muddling policy that he had 
rebelled against in time of peace when he longed 
to put through some measure for the people's good 
was the thing which now in time of war was crip- 
pling the army in the field. Once again he dared 
to attack openly those in control, even when it 
meant a serious criticism of the people's hero, 
Lord Kitchener. But there must be more guns 
and more shells. The men must not be sacrificed 
and the war must be won. 

The Government then said in effect to Lloyd 
George, ' ' We will see what you can do. ' ' He was 
moved from the position of Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer to a new post created for him. As Min- 
ister of Munitions he was given power to put the 
industries of the country on a war basis that 
would make them equal to the demands of the 
moment. 

" Shells, more shells, mightier shells, and still 
more shells !" was the cry. The country was 
thoroughly aroused. It was at once plain that 

142 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

the munition plants were hopelessly inadequate. 
Lloyd George saw that he must enlist the services 
of all the people and the equipment of all the 
factories and engineering firms. New men must 
be trained; women must be prepared to take up 
the work. Manufacturers and business men were 
called to consult with the new minister to devise 
how every plant which could produce shells or 
parts of shells might serve the country's need. 
Soon factories that had been making plows, sew- 
ing-machines, automobiles and many other things 
were turning out shells — only shells. So the tools 
of peace had become the sinews of war. 

There were other problems, however, besides 
taking a census of all the machines in the country 
and enlisting the cooperation of all the manufac- 
turers. Each plant must work at top steam and 
each worker must prove efficient. That meant that 
the drink problem must be dealt with and the 
health of the workers safeguarded. It also meant 
that the rules governing labor must be set aside. 

"Our Munition Minister will meet his Waterloo 
there,' ' people said. "The trades unions will 
never yield an inch." 

Lloyd George called special meetings of the men. 
"An enlisted workman," he said, "cannot choose 

143 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

his battle-field or the time he is to fight. If a 
house is on fire you can't say that you are not 
liable to serve at three o'clock in the morning. 
You can't choose the hour. You can't argue as 
to whose duty it is to carry the water-bucket and 
whose duty it is to put it into a crackling furnace. 
You must put the fire out." The workers under- 
stood and responded heartily to a man. 

It seemed as if the country had now fallen into 
the habit of turning to Lloyd George in time of 
stress. When a strike broke out in the Welsh 
mines which supplied the Navy with coal, and the 
Board of Trade despaired of effecting a com- 
promise, Lloyd George was called upon. He went, 
talked with the employers and men face to face, 
and conquered. When, at the death of Lord Kit- 
chener, the question arose, " Where shall we find 
a Minister of War?" the answer came, " There 
is only one man— Lloyd George." 

Lloyd George was indeed the man of the hour. 
He frequently visited the trenches and went to 
Paris for direct consultation with the commanders. 
He sensed the needs of the time — regulation of 
food and fuel supplies and elimination of luxuries ; 
also Government control of railways, shipping, 
and munition works. He realized the need of a 

144 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

greater army and forced on conscription. His 
greatest individual work, however, as Minister of 
War, was the organizing of the railway system 
behind the British army in France. 

When in December, 1916, the country was 
aroused to the need of a strong hand at the helm, 
a man for war time who would act quickly and 
vigorously, the King asked Lloyd George to serve 
as Prime Minister. 

"If you take a job do it with all your might," 
cried Lloyd George. "We must see the war 
through, and there must be no hugger-mugger 
peace. It must be an end where we can see light 
after the dark struggle.' ' 

One of his first acts was to create a special War 
Council, men without administrative responsibility 
who were given supreme control in managing the 
country's business. New departments in charge 
of shipping, and labor were filled not from the 
ranks of political leaders but from the men who 
had made good in business or public administra- 
tion during the stress of war. He called into being 
the Imperial War Cabinet representing England's 
colonies ; and, more important than all, he not only 
realized keenly the need of unity of command for 
the Allied Armies, but he also had the courage 

145 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

to see the matter through. The creation, first 
of a Supreme War Council of the Allies, and later 
the selection of General Foch as Commander-in- 
Chief, came as the direct result of his insistence. 

There was a terrible hue and cry at the time 
of his famous "brutally frank' ' speech in Paris. 
"He has attacked his own country in time of war," 
it was said. "He has given aid and encourage- 
ment to the enemy." — "Now the power of this 
upstart will be pricked like a big bubble," said 
his opponents. 

But after the dust of the fray had somewhat 
cleared, Lloyd George was seen standing erect 
and confident, still the man of the hour. 

"I made up my mind to take risks," he said, 
"and I took them, to arouse public sentiment, 
not here merely, but in France, in Italy, and in 
America. It is not easy to rouse public opinion. 
I may know nothing of military strategy, but I 
do know something of political strategy. To raise 
a row is the only way to get a job through. I 
determined to make a disagreeable speech that 
would force everybody to talk about this scheme, 
and they have talked about it. The result is that 
America is in, Italy is in, France is in, Britain 
is in, and public opinion is in, and that is vital." 

146 



THE MAN BEHIND THE GUNS 

So Lloyd George stuck by his guns, and " fired 
the shot heara round the world." But the man 
who was, perhaps, the greatest power behind the 
guns that won the war, is truly a man of peace. 
He looks ahead to the sane work of reconstruction 
that will make the world a better place for all 
peoples. 

"We believe with Lincoln," he said, "that our 
armies are ministers of good, not evil. Through 
all the carnage and suffering and conflicting mo- 
tives of the Civil War, Lincoln held steadfastly 
to the belief that it was the freedom of the people 
to govern themselves which was the fundamental 
issue at stake. So do we to-day. For when the 
people of central Europe accept the peace which 
is offered them by the Allies, not only will the 
allied peoples be free, as they have never been 
free before, but the German people, too, will find 
that in losing their dream of an empire over others, 
they have found self-government for themselves. ' ' 



147 



CRUSADERS OF THE WAR: 

I 

THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 



Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai 

Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, 

How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp 
Abode his destin'd Hour and went his way. 

They say the Lion and the Lizard keep 

The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep: 

And Bahrain, that great Hunter — the Wild Ass 
Stamps o'er his Head, but cannot break his Sleep. 

Omar Khayyam. 



I 

GENEEAL MAUDE 

MESOPOTAMIA— the Land between the 
Eivers, the garden-spot of Eden where hu- 
man life first came to its own, where great empires 
rose and passed away before the glories of 
Greece and Eome were even thought of — Meso- 
potamia, with your ancient splendor and present 
desolation, why did the nations choose you as the 
scene of one act of the terrible war tragedy? 

"If they had to fight somewhere, I suppose it 
was good they hit upon this place where there is 
nothing they can upset in the fray," said a Y. M. 
C. A. worker. "When we growl about the beastly 
climate, let 's stop to think about what is happen- 
ing to France and then ask ourselves whether we 'd 
like to call down that blight on any other fair spot 
of the earth.' ' 

"Yes, you bet we can put up with the 115 plus 
in the shade, the mosquitoes, sand-fleas, and all 
the other ten plagues, if it really helps to put an 

151 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

end to that awfulness," responded a companion 
who believed that peace is a blessing worth fight- 
ing for. 

Yet how did it really come about ? Nobody saw 
much that was promising in Mesopotamia. (Mes- 
pot the soldiers called it.) Wandering Arabs 
pitched a tent here to-day to be off to-morrow. 
The Turks had no use for it ; once they offered it to 
England as a gift if that nation would relieve them 
of the control. But at the time Britain saw noth- 
ing in the offer — why assume a bootless respon- 
sibility? 

No one could imagine any good coming out of 
that desert land of summer heat and winter sand 
blasts. Therefore the world was somewhat mysti- 
fied to hear that William II of Germany was plan- 
ning to build a railroad across the country of deso- 
lation to Bagdad, and England realized that the 
project could mean nothing but a threat to her in- 
fluence in India and the East. Why, for profitable 
commerce, should the route avoid districts of agri- 
cultural promise in order to take the shortest cut 
across the desert? The military advantage of 
such a highway was only toe apparent. It was 
perfectly transparent to the Arab Sheikh of Ku- 
weit, who in his friendship for Great Britain, 

152 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

obstinately refused, notwithstanding all the pres- 
sure that Turkey could bring to bear, to grant 
or sell the privilege to run such a road through 
his territory. 

The friendship between Turkey and the Ger- 
man emperor dates some years back of the war 
alliance. In 1889, the Kaiser took occasion to 
visit Constantinople and establish friendly rela- 
tions with the Sultan and his people, paving the 
way for the peaceful invasion of the Ottoman 
Empire by German agents and traders. In 1898, 
he made a tour through Palestine as the special 
friend and ally of the Turk, even on one remark- 
able occasion in Damascus, proclaiming himself 
"Defender of Islam.' ' Many pictures of the 
Prussian monarch in Turkish garments were left 
behind as souvenirs, and in referring to them some 
of the German diplomatic agents whispered con- 
fidentially that his majesty was at heart a sincere 
convert to Islamism. On the summit of the Mount 
of Olives he built a huge, hideously pretentious 
structure with a statue of himself in coat-of-mail as 
a crusader dominating the court-yard. This 
monument to an autocrat's vanity was built to 
serve two ends. First, it provided a hospice for 
German pilgrims to Jerusalem; so much for the 

153 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

present and the public. Second, it harbored cun- 
ningly devised machine gun emplacements which 
would command the approaches to the hill; so 
much for the possible future and those who shared 
the Kaiser's dream of world empire. 

"It is indeed an ill wind which blows no one 
any good," said an English officer, "and the 
Kaiser ? s attempt to win control in the East which 
brought the war to the Garden of Eden may lead 
to the restoration of that lost paradise. ' ' 

"What can possibly be done for a land that is 
either desert or swamp, with the extremes of 
parching heat and unruly floods?" he was chal- 
lenged. 

"In ancient times there was a system of irri- 
gation that met both difficulties," he replied, 
"and the man who has made a study of the pres- 
ent condition assures us that it can be done again 
by an employment of some engineering skill and 
sufficient capital. The blight that has come upon 
that naturally fertile land is the result of the 
shiftless, plundering methods of Turkish control 
— nothing done for the up-keep or improvement 
of the countries they are supposed to govern." 

Even while the destruction of war was going 
forward some of the life-giving, up-building forces 

154 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

were at work, which made the Englishman pro- 
phesy that the desert would one day blossom as 
the rose and the wastes become fields of waving 
grain. "Life is ever Lord of Death*' and the law 
of growth more powerful than man's blind, puny 
efforts to destroy. In the very carrying forward 
of the war it was necessary to extend railways; 
build bridges, stations, and, freight-depots; and 
improve the navigation of the Tigris. The needs 
of the army led both to the employment of the peo- 
ple and the extension of irrigation. This meant 
a change for the better in the condition of the law- 
less, wandering Arabs, and the beginning of a 
government that insured order, the protection of 
just laws, and the possibility of free development. 
The modern well-equipped port of Basra, with 
its hard-surfaced roads, warehouses, piers and 
dry-docks, may be taken as a type and promise of 
the new order. 

But the beginning of the story has to do with 
the old Basra, where four British transports from 
Bombay landed a little force of Tommies and In- 
dian troops in November, 1914. They found a 
wretchedly unsanitary Turkish-Arab town — no 
docks, warehouses, roads, vehicles, lights, or civil- 
ized comforts of any sort. They saw in every di- 

155 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

rection a stretch of drab and tawny desert through 
which wriggled in a particularly unpleasant, tor- 
tuous way two shallow, sluggish, brown rivers, 
along whose banks grew files of tall, fringing date 
palms — the only green that broke the desolate ex- 
panse. 

"What are we to do in this bloomin' spot?" 
asked one indignant Tommy. i ' This is n 't the war 
I'm after !" 

"Well," drawled a comrade, "you remember 
some chap once said that war was hell ; this looks 
like it, doesn't it?" 

"What are we supposed to do here anyway?" 
persisted Tommy. 

i t ' Ours not to question why, ' ' ' quoted the other. 
"But since we 're at war with the Turks, I suppose 
we 're bound to get at them where we can. You 
know what the order said, that we 're sent ' to safe- 
guard our interests and to protect the friendly 
Arabs.' I don't know what the ' interests' are 
besides the oil-works over yonder and the pipe-lines 
up to the oil fields. There would be something 
doing though if they took a notion to drop a bomb 
there." 

"Well," pursued Master Tommy, "of course 
even I can see that the Navy must have a place to 

156 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

tap oil in this part of the world, — but say, did you 
ever see a ' friendly Arab'?" 

The early experiences of the soldiers tended to 
impress them with the trickery and treachery of 
their new neighbors. Many were the tales told 
of their thievishness. One man had had his kit 
taken; another had been relieved of everything, 
even his tent, while he slept. An Indian sentry, 
challenging in vain a skulking shade from the 
desert, fired and brought down his man ; but as he 
stooped to look at him the tables were turned. 
The Arab sprang to his feet, snatched the sentry's 
gun and made off with it through the night. 

There were, however, some good Arabs, the sol- 
diers were assured. There were many who had 
been loyal to the English at a time when the Turks, 
urged on by the Germans, had tried to work on 
their religious zeal to bring about a "holy war." 
The whole world waited breathless because the 
jihah was held to be a duty of true Moslems. But 
the Arabs remembered that it was to the English 
and not the Turks that they had looked for pro- 
tection from pirates when they went to sell the 
fruits of their pearling season. The Britons were 
the strong men of earth, and strength was to man 
as swiftness to a horse. The sheikhs had a fine 

157 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

scorn of the indolent Turks who made such a poor 
pretense of governing. Many of the Arabs, more- 
over, belonged to a sect of the Mohammedans who 
held that the Sultan was not the true heir to the 
authority of their Prophet, but that the rightful 
descendants had been slain. 

"But we must play a safe game in Mesopo- 
tamia,' J the soldiers were warned. "With the 
Arabs as with the people of Egypt and India, the 
battle is to the strong. It is only as leaders that 
they hold to us ; at the first sign of weakening they 
drop away." 

Basra was not taken without a struggle — the 
first real grapple with the enemy and the enemy's 
country. Of the two the latter seemed far more 
formidable, though the Turks were unpleasant 
enough. But picture indefinite stretches of hope- 
less swamp, fringed with date palms and grape- 
vine entanglements, through which ran canals and 
creeks, where Turks fought from ambush behind 
the trees and under the banks of the ditches. 
Fancy marching twenty-eight miles through 
slimy mud in one day. That was the "wicked, 
bad campaigning' ' that tried the souls of the 
Tommies. But there they were in Basra, with 
the Turks in retreat up the river toward Bag- 

158 



THE LIBERATOR OP BAGDAD 

dad and away from the precious Anglo-Persian 
oil properties at Abadan — the little island at the 
mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, as the estuary which 
carries the combined waters of the Tigris and 
Euphrates into the Persian Gulf is called. 

Then came the first ill-fated expedition to Bag- 
dad. Beginning with successes that led the Brit- 
ish to underestimate both the strength of the 
enemy and their own serious handicap in the mat- 
ter of communications and supplies, they were 
lured on from Amara, one hundred and thirty-two 
miles up the Tigris from Basra, and then a hundred 
and fifty miles further to Kut-el-Amara, which 
commanded the direct routes into Persia. It 
seemed impossible to hold back with another vic- 
tory beckoning at the next bend in the river, espe- 
cially as a halt might be read as weakness. 

It was the British way to dare splendidly, and 
there is no wine so heady as that of unmixed suc- 
cess. The important position of Kut was taken 
and occupied by a gallant charge that fairly swept 
the Turks out in confusion towards Bagdad. 
What more natural than the next move? "We 
pursued the routed Turks with the utmost 
v ig 0r " reads the official report, and it may be 
added, with such momentum that they never 

159 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

paused until they were half-way between Kut and 
Bagdad. Was it strange that the cry "On to 
Bagdad !" should have put to silence the voice of 
prudence: "Remember that you are running 
ahead of your supply bases ; the safe game is the 
only one to play in this unknown, untamed coun- 
try. Don't forget that 'an army travels on its 
stomach ' ; if it tries to get up and run, it may not 
live to run another day ! ' ' 

We are told that General Townshend listened to 
the promptings of caution. He was a seasoned 
officer who had fought on the Nile and in South 
Africa. Now he sent airplanes ahead to learn the 
strength of the enemy, and reported: "On mili- 
tary grounds we should consolidate our position 
at Rut." But the cry "On to Bagdad!" swept 
all before it. Why let the routed Turks retire and 
recover? The men were eager to be up and after 
them, and the orders came to follow up the victory. 
Bagdad was a prize worth the winning. It would 
bring thousands of Arabs to the support of the 
conquerors of the sacred city; it would mean such 
a blow to Turkey that she would hardly be able to 
rally her forces against Suez or India. 

In the shadow of the ruined Arch of Ctesiphon — 
symbol of the vanished glories of the past — there 

160 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

was a mighty struggle with the entrenched Turks, 
and again the British won. They were almost 
within reach of the goal when the tide turned. 
The Turks were reenf orced from Bagdad in such 
numbers that they threatened to surround General 
Townshend's little army. There was nothing to 
do but to retire to Kut and wait for men and 
munitions. 

Then followed the siege. For one hundred and 
forty-three days General Townshend held out 
against the enemy before he surrendered — not to 
force of arms but to famine. Day after day he 
heard the guns of the rescuing party who were 
struggling in vain to reach Kut, held back in their 
advance against the Turks by the fearful mire of 
the rainy season. Then a part of the heroic little 
band knew the bitterness of going up the river 
past the scenes of their former triumphs to the 
city of the Arabian Nights as prisoners. The 
drum-beat "On to Bagdad" was muffled now. 

The man whose task it was to turn defeat into 
victory, General Sir Stanley Maude, was put in 
command August 28, 1916. * ' The smallest part of 
a general's work is done at the time of battle," he 
said. "That victory belongs to the men who go 
over the top. The test of the commander comes 

161 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

in laying the foundation of the campaign, in the 
planning for success and the providing against 
failure. ' ' 

General Maude spent four months in his 
preparations, and the results of his work were to 
be seen in many places besides in the camps of the 
soldiers, who had to be made fit for vigorous cam- 
paigning after the ills and torments of the most 
savage summer and the depressing effects of de- 
feat. But their "Army Commander" led them 
out of the Egyptian darkness of weakness and in- 
difference into the Promised Land of spirited ac- 
tion. Like Kipling's efficient sergeant who could 
"drill a black man white," he got his Tommies in 
trim by putting them to work. Only a small de- 
tachment were left on the fighting line opposite the 
Turk's confident position at Sunnaiyat below Kut 
where the rescuing party had been held while 
General Townshend fought starvation. The rest 
of the troops were told off to assist in the great 
work of preparedness, — building roads, docks and 
warehouses, and helping in the moving of sup- 
plies. One felt the strength of General Maude's 
influence with his men and their whole-hearted con- 
fidence in him when they spoke his name or stood 
at salute before his six-feet-three of commanding 

162 



THE LIBERATOE OF BAGDAD 

presence. * ' Every inch a general ! ' ' they used to 
say proudly, " Nothing gets by him." 

But the most conspicuous result of the Army 
Commander 's generalship was seen in the way the 
dogged British habit of "getting things done" had 
struck root in Mesopotamia. "Witness the new 
Basra, with its docks, warehouses and hospitals; 
witness the roads that conquered the mud of the 
rainy months. Along the river bank where the 
stores were landed was a hard-surfaced oiled way 
which the men pointed out with pardonable pride. 
"You 'd better appreciate the going along here; 
it 's the most expensive six-miles in the world," 
they would say. "Every bit of the paving ma- 
terial brought from the interior of India ! ' ' Later 
some road-making material nearer at hand was un- 
earthed, but that six-mile stretch will remain a 
perfect type of the way the British were over- 
riding obstacles under the leadership of "the Man 
of Mesopotamia." 

Eleanor Franklin Egan, in her delightfully vivid 
account of many phases of the Bagdad campaign, 
"The War in the Cradle of the World," has a 
really epic chapter on the calling of the river boats 
from the various streams of the British dominions 
to do special duty on the Tigris in the nation's 

163 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

hour of need. Only the humble craft made for 
shallow channels might serve here in the impor- 
tant work of carrying supplies and removing the 
wounded. So the " penny steamers' ' of the 
Thames, and their colonial cousins from the Nile, 
the Ganges, and South Africa, steamed away from 
their familiar haunts and crossed the seas to an- 
swer the call. I cannot refrain from quoting a 
few lines from that Odyssey of the Penny Steam- 
ers: 

River boats were an absolute, a primary necessity. They 
could not be built in Mesopotamia, nor anywhere else in time 
to relieve the desperate situation. . . . 

Then they would have to come out of other rivers other- 
wheres and make their various ways somehow — no matter 
how! — across the seas and up through the Persian Gulf! . . . 
It has been one of the bravest and strangest achievements of 
the war, and one hears with a feeling of specially chill re- 
gret that more than eighty of them have failed ! A few from 
everywhere have gone — along with the high hopes of British 
sailors, and usually with the sailors, too — to the bottom of 
the seas they were never meant to venture on. ... As I 
watched the curious, flat-bottomed, high-funneled, double- 
decked, paddle-wheeled little craft churning briskly down- 
stream I was seeing visions of the kind of heroism that makes 
one prayerful. . . . 

General Maude's "safe game" included the 
building of a railroad that was to be the measure 
of their advance. ' ' Only what an army can grap- 

164 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

pie with steel rails is safely theirs," he said. So 
they never went beyond rail-head. 

There are many curious stories told of the way 
the desert mirage mixed things up in the Meso- 
potamian battles. One saw phantom armies, 
clouds of galloping men riding across the shim- 
mering sand, who disappeared into air, as did the 
cooling lakes under sheltering palms that seemed 
to lie just beyond the thirsty traveler. "It was 
terribly upsetting to a chap's nerve as well as to 
his aim," said one of the men. "And of course 
you can see how it played hob with our calculation 
of gun ranges. But once it gave us a victory that 
was like a miracle out of the Bible. At the very 
moment that the Turks seemed to have us beyond 
hope of rescue, lo and behold! they turned and 
fled like mad ! They thought they saw reenf orce- 
ments coming over the desert — hosts upon hosts — 
and would you believe it? — it was just a little sup- 
ply and ambulance train moving along in its own 
little cloud of dust that the desert light had played 
upon until it seemed ' terrible as an army with 
banners.' They say the unlucky Turkish com- 
mander committed suicide when he learned how 
they had been bewitched." 

There was going to be no chance for any sort 
165 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

of a mirage to lure General Maude away from a 
safe game. From the planning of supply trains 
and depots along the path of his advance to the 
installing of ice-plants and special hospital tents 
for the treatment of men suffering from heat- 
strokes, each factor of the Mesopotamian situa- 
tion was weighed and dealt with in turn. 

The Turks felt that they, too, were playing a 
safe game. Reenforced in men, and in morale — 
the fruit of victory, — they waited in strongly en- 
trenched positions at Sunnaiyat on the north bank 
of the Tigris and further west at the Hai, a stream 
flowing due south from Kut. It was their object 
to hold their own with a comparatively small force 
by virtue of their carefully guarded positions, and 
then get behind the British to strike at India 
through Persia. The Sunnaiyat was indeed well 
taken. A wedge-shaped strip of land between an 
impassable morass and the Tigris, it was insured 
against flank attacks, and protected by a remark- 
able system of trenches, bristling with gun-pits, 
mines, and barbed wire entanglements. 

It was General Maude's plan to begin by a bom- 
bardment at Sunnaiyat designed merely to give 
the Turks something to think about while he struck 
boldly on the other side of the river, crossing the 

166 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

Hai by a surprise attack. Then, through a series 
of hammering blows he hoped to seize the enemy's 
system of trenches there, and, crossing the Tigris 
at the weakest part of the line, as far west as pos- 
sible, threaten the communication of the enemy at 
Sunnaiyat. Thus the Turks might be compelled 
to yield that stronghold in order to preserve the 
life-line of supplies from Bagdad. 

The plan worked well. By the middle of De- 
cember, General Maude had the main body of his 
forces concentrated on the south side of the river 
with all detachments trained on the enemy posi- 
tions there, and on the night of the thirteenth the 
mighty push against Kut was launched — just one 
year after the time that General Townshend and 
his men took their plucky stand in that city. In 
spite of all the enemy 's well-laid plans, in spite of 
the most adverse weather conditions — a time of 
midday heat followed by marrow-piercing cold at 
night, and sand-storms which ushered in the sea- 
son of flooding rains that reduced the fighting 
ground to quagmires — in spite of all the preven- 
tions of man and the perversities of nature, they 
passed on to success. 

In the crossing of the Tigris above Kut the Brit- 
ish seemed to achieve the impossible. After two 

167 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

months of vigorous hammering that drove the 
Turks back inch by inch from the country around 
the Hai, they took refuge in the positions about 
Kut on the opposite side of the river and in their 
impregnable field of Sunnaiyat, as who should say, 
i i Thus far and no farther ! Here we can hold till 
doomsday !" 

But the day of doom was already dawning. 
This is the way the account of it read in General 
Maude's official report: 

The waterlogged state of the country and a high flood on 
the Tigris now necessitated a pause, but the time was use- 
fully employed in methodical preparation for the passage of 
the Tigris at Shumran. Positions, guns and machine-gun 
crews to support the crossing were selected, approaches and 
ramps were made, and crews were trained to man the pon- 
toons. In order to keep our intentions concealed it was nec- 
essary that most of the details, including the movement of 
guns, should be carried out under the cover of night. Op- 
posite Sunnaiyat where it was intended to renew the assault, 
artillery barrages were carried out daily in order to induce 
the enemy to expect such barrages unaccompanied by an as- 
sault as part of the daily routine. Minor diversions were also 
planned to deceive the enemy as to the point at which it was 
intended to cross the river. 

"We have waited for the rain and mud to stop 
you, ,, said one of the 2,000 prisoners who had not 
succeeded in making good their crossing of the 

168 




Photograph by Press Illustrating Service, Inc. 

SIR FREDERICK STANLEY MAUDE 

The late Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief in Mesopotamia 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

river to Kut, "but Kismet willed that it should 
not rain. ,, And when Fate sent the longed-for 
torrent just a bit too late, it had clogged their feet 
as they tried to flee. Clearly Kismet was with 
the British, for not only before the flood but 
through the mire they pressed on. 

Only madmen would have attempted to cross 
the river, so the Turks thought — the river at flood 
which was three hundred and fifty yards wide at 
the point where the ferries and pontoons were 
thrown over, swept by the machine-gun fire from 
the commanding positions of the enemy. Cannon 
to right of them; cannon to left of them! "But 
we did it ! ' ' exulted one Tommy from his hospital 
cot ; he had no hand to bring to salute but his face 
glowed. . . . "The men pressed on with uncon- 
querable valor and determination, ' ' wrote the 
Army Commander. 

Well, what use of holding out against Kismet! 
Turks at least know enough not to strive against 
Fate. When on the evening of February 23, that 
fatal bridge built in nine hours across the Tigris 
at flood was ready for the triumphal passing of 
General Maude 's men, the Turkish forces were in 
full retreat toward Bagdad, fighting defiantly 

169 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

every step of the way. "It 's not your infidel 
strength that has won," they seemed to say. 
"Kismet has willed it." 

The armies of the three elements — earth, air, 
and water — were warring together now against 
the routed Turks. Airplanes made swooping at- 
tacks dropping death from above; gun-boats ad- 
vanced along the river shelling the defenses along 
the banks; and the invincible army pressed on. 
With just one pause half-way to Bagdad to insure 
lines of communication and the best organization 
of the troops, they advanced toward the goal — 
eighteen miles one day, seventeen miles the next. 
"On to Bagdad ' ' was now a mighty trumpet call. 

In the City of Golden Domes, of minarets, and 
magic associations of oriental romance — a city of 
splendid dreams ; in the unsanitary, unsightly col- 
lection of mud-dwellings and gaudy bazaars — a 
city of sordid reality — for Bagdad was both of 
these — there was tremendous excitement. The 
Turks were fleeing ; why did not the British come 
and keep order? For the terrible Kurds were 
seizing the moment of confusion for looting and 
outrages of every sort. "The British are at our 
gates; why do they not enter!" moaned the Ara- 
bian traders who saw their rugs and precious in- 

170 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

laid furniture scattered about and destroyed as 
the robbers seized and fought among themselves 
for the jewelry and costly bric-a-brac. 

When the Tommies at last entered the city, pale 
and haggard from sleepless nights and hard fight- 
ing, they found the streets crowded with a host of 
people in holiday attire — men in turbans, red 
fezzes, and Persian-lamb caps and long, girdled 
robes ; women in silk draperies, fancy slippers and 
festive lace veils. Arabs, Armenians, Persians, 
Syrians, Jews, joined in the great rejoicing. 
Their deliverers who would insure freedom and 
protection for all had come. 

Many were disappointed that General Maude did 
not seize the opportunity for a triumphal entry. 
Surely there might have been some satisfying 
flourish after all the weary struggle! But that 
was not the Army Commander's way, nor was it 
in keeping with the British spirit. He left it for 
the results — and the people of Bagdad — to do the 
cheering. A few troops entered the city to patrol 
the streets and preserve order. For himself he 
had them moor his floating headquarters on one of 
the supply-boats to the wall of the British Resi- 
dency, and accompanied by the members of his 
staff, walked quietly ashore "as casually as he 

171 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

might have done had he been only a very tired 
traveler arriving under the most ordinary cir- 
cumstances/ ' it was remarked. 

They did not at once, however, take calm and 
assured possession. Bagdad must be made for- 
ever safe from the domination of the Turk; vic- 
tory must be made sure. To insure the city 
against a rallying counter-attack, the famous Scot- 
tish Black Watch pursued the routed enemy 
through dust storms, and desperate fighting that 
lasted two nights and a day, — for the Turks were 
stubborn in their defiance. They must bow to 
Kismet, but they hated the instruments of his will. 
The resolute conduct of the rank and file in face 
of defeat won the admiration of the Tommies. 
"If there 's fighting to be done, give me Johnny 
Turk," they said. "He will ' stick it' to the fin- 
ish!" 

But the end had indeed come on March 10, 1917, 
when General Maude entered Bagdad. The pres- 
tige of the Turks with the Arabs was gone, and 
with it all hope of striking a blow at the English 
hi India. All the cultivated lands of Babylonia 
and the prospect of their harvests for provision- 
ing the armies of the Central Powers had slipped 
away. Inspired by the Turkish defeat in Meso- 

172 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

potamia, the Arabs of Hedjaz, a province of 
Turkey in Asia, revolted and proclaimed their in- 
dependence under the leadership of the Shereef of 
Mecca who captured the Turkish garrisons in that 
sacred city, secured the allegiance of the orthodox 
Arabs and Syrians whose religious zeal had been 
outraged by the Young Turks, and took the title of 
King of Hedjaz. Several Turkish towns were 
seized and the Syrian railway seriously crippled. 

While Bagdad was still celebrating the coming 
of the English and the dawn of its new day of 
freedom a sudden hush fell upon the general re- 
joicing. The conquerors had a staggering loss. 
After three days of illness General Maude died on 
November 18, 1917, of the pestilence of the coun- 
try — cholera — taken, it was said, from the raw 
milk he had poured into his coffee at a Jewish re- 
ception in honor of the victory. 

"The Huns have scored again,' ' was the bitter 
word that passed from one group of soldiers to 
the next as they looked at each other with white, 
set faces. "Who will ' carry on' now?" 

Then, as they repeated in hushed voices the last 
words of their beloved Army Commander, "Tell 
them I can 't come to the office to-day. They must 
just carry on," — they knew that they would "carry 

173 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

on," with the undying spirit of their leader urg- 
ing them forward. For the cause of freedom and 
peace does not depend on the strength of any one 
man, but on the might of unnumbered hosts ever 
carrying on. 

General Marshall, the corps commander of the 
eastern front, succeeded General Maude. "He 
will see that the Army Commander's plans are 
carried through," said one of the officers. "You 
know he used to insist that Marshall was the better 
general of the two. 'He 's a wonderful leader/ 
he once said ; ' wish I could work things out with the 
sweep he does. Being an office man clips your 
power. Marshall has had the service in the field 
and the touch with the men that are the real 
thing/" 

General Maude 's successor did indeed carry on. 
By swift, skilful blows he swept the Turks from 
the region of the Euphrates, destroying all their 
hopes of rallying there for the recapture of Bag- 
dad, drove them a hundred miles further along the 
Tigris, cleared them out of their boasted strategic 
position on the Persian frontier, and strength- 
ened the barrier along that front which had threat- 
ened to collapse on the retirement of Russia from 
the war. 

174 



THE LIBERATOR OF BAGDAD 

When one reviews the Mesopotamian story 
from its dashing promise that ended in the tragedy 
at Kut, through the second campaign where the 
steady, four-square generalship of Maude tri- 
umphed in a series of engagements that must set 
a standard for all future colonial commanders, to 
the final capitulation of the Turks when General 
Townshend was released to carry to the Allies the 
white flag of surrender, one is struck by the un- 
daunted British will to " carry on" that alone 
made it possible. And one kindles at the thought 
that " Peace hath her victories no less renowned 
than war"; and that in the reclaiming of the des- 
ert, in the development of the country through the 
freedom and enlightenment of its peoples, the 
spirit that commands victory will still " carry 
on." 



175 



CRUSADERS OF THE WORLD WAR: 

II 
THE DELIVERER OP JERUSALEM 



"Palestine has been of greater significance to mankind, spir- 
itually and materially, than any other single country in the 
world. . . . Nowhere else has so much history run into or 
through so narrow a space." 



II 

GENERAL ALLENBY 

WHEN the river Nile flows into Palestine, 
there will come a prophet from the west 
who shall drive the Turk from Jerusalem, ' ' so ran 
the Arab prophecy; and one of the most interest- 
ing chapters in the story of the World War is con- 
cerned with its fulfilment. 

The greatest events of human history, like the 
most momentous happenings in the life of every 
individual, come to pass so quietly, so inevitably, 
that we do not perceive their trend any more than 
we see the growth of a tree. We know the sap- 
ling ; we sit in the shade of the tree and eat of its 
fruit. The results are ours, but not the alchemy 
that has changed earth and air into food for man. 

Was there any one during the first dark months 
of war who could see how the nations were being 
led? In particular, had the great captains of 
England any vision of the part their armies should 
have in the freeing of Jerusalem, the holy city of 

179 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

three religions 1 Let us see what it was that gave 
rise to the last and greatest of the crusades. 

In the early days of the great struggle the whole 
thought of England, as of her allies, was centered 
upon the Western front. How could there be any 
question that the country that the invader had 
seized was the place where the war must be fought 
out and the victory won? There were, however, 
those who before long began to say that Britain 
was singularly blind to the situation at her eastern 
gate. It is here, they sounded warning, that Ger- 
many intends to strike her real blow, for her dream 
is to found an empire reaching to the Persian 
Gulf, that will wrest the sceptre of power from 
England in India and in Egypt. 

It seems strange now that any one could have 
been blind to the meaning of the Kaiser 's alliance 
with Turkey, and the project of the Berlin-to-Bag- 
dad Railway. We see, however, without the 
shadow of a doubt that England had not prepared 
for a war, or else she would have been ready to go 
forward at the point where things might have 
been pushed to an early decision. But it is idle 
to speculate on what might have happened if Eng- 
land had been able to press on with vigor at the 
Dardanelles and to strike through the Balkans, 

180 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

saving Serbia and uniting with Russia in time to 
prevent the collapse of that ally. If it is true as 
one of the Sultan's henchmen declared, that it was 
not Turkish bravery but Allied stupidity that 
saved the Dardanelles, still events have shown 
that Destiny was working in another way. 

Things came about quite naturally. The Ger- 
mans and Turks thought that the British lion was 
asleep — else why with a Kitchener in command, 
one who knew the East and its opportunities, did 
the English not come in their ships or even across 
the desert to Palestine while that door was open? 
For at the beginning Turkey could have offered 
little resistance there. Surely it was a golden 
opportunity to destroy the Suez canal, and with 
it British prestige in Egypt and in India. 

"It was a bit expensive, that excursion of the 
Turks across the desert, " said an English officer. 
"It cost them 60,000 camels ; but it came near cost- 
ing us Suez. ' ' 

It seemed as if representatives of all the people 
of the British Empire fought there at England's 
canal-gateway to India and the East. There were 
East Indians, Australians, and New Zealanders, 
as well as British territorials and yeomanry. 
Some English and French men-of-war also lent 

181 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

their assistance. Heavy losses were inflicted on 
the Turks who were put to rout with their Turk- 
ish and German leaders at Kantara, a point on the 
canal about thirty miles south of Port Said. 

There was no doubt now that the British lion 
was awake. The desert must be crossed and the 
Turks attacked in Palestine; that northern pass 
to the precious canal must not be left in the hands 
of the enemy. 

It was not the English way to depend on camel 
transport, however. Sir Archibald Murray, who 
was in command of the British forces in Egypt, de- 
cided to advance in the thorough-going Kitchener 
manner by laying a railroad along the Mediter- 
ranean shore from Kantara through Rafa and on 
up into Palestine. So the rails of a standard 
gauge line were laid across the desert from Cairo 
to Jerusalem. And the decision to proceed in this 
way was reached as deliberately as if the genii 
called upon to bridge the waste would not have 
to work by means of thousands of laborers to make 
roads, drain marshes, level embankments, and 
finally lay pipes to carry water along from the 
Nile itself across the desert. For they could no 
more depend upon carrying water than they could 
upon finding a Moses who would be able to call it 

182 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

from a rock. They must take the Nile with them. 
But, be it noticed, they did this in the simple, nat- 
ural way of meeting a need, little dreaming that 
by so doing a prophecy was being fulfilled. 

Nor did General Sir Edmund Allenby, that 
quiet, unpretentious commander in whom the 
strength of the leader and the easy courtesy of the 
English scholar and gentleman seemed perfectly 
blended, have any more idea that Fate had singled 
him out to lead a successful crusade and play the 
part of liberator to the followers of three great 
faiths than he had when he was a school-boy at 
Haileybury College. It is the pride of all of Eng- 
land's public schools — Eton, Rugby, Harrow, and 
the rest — that they so graft the fine traditions of 
the past upon the sturdy stem of vigorous, well- 
balanced training of mind and body, that they pro- 
duce a special flowering of character which has 
been the strength and glory of the British Em- 
pire. It is the boast of Haileybury that her sons 
have proved particularly fit in taking up "the 
white man 's burden ' ' in India and in Africa. . . . 
We may note that, while still a boy at school, young 
Allenby showed a love of literature. He enjoyed 
the fine flavor of a book that was to his taste as 
naturally as he enjoyed a game of cricket. 

183 



FIGHTEES FOR PEACE 

On entering the soldier's life as a young officer of 
dragoons, he first saw active service in Africa 
at the age of twenty-three. Four years later — in 
1888 — he fought in Zululand, and because of his 
keen resourcefulness as well as his courage, he was 
made adjutant. In the South African War from 
1899 to 1902 his gallantry and cavalry tactics 
which were twice mentioned by his commander in 
dispatches home, won him a decoration by the 
Government. 

In the present war his division of cavalry acted 
as a screen to the infantry in that stubborn retreat 
when the Germans were making their first ter- 
rific rush on Paris, and "the contemptible little 
British army" of less than 200,000, hopelessly out- 
numbered and deluged with high-explosive shells 
to which they had no way of replying, fell back 
step by step, yielding so slowly, selling their lives 
so dearly, that the German onslaught was checked 
until JofTre could gather his forces for the stand 
at the Marne. It was Allenby 's cavalry that, like 
the nimble shield of the gladiator fighting against 
odds, caught the deadly thrusts of the enemy, and 
enabled the slender columns to prolong the strug- 
gle as they did. It was also Allenby 's cavalry, as 
General French noted in his report, that saved the 

184 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

heroic remnant of the British forces from destruc- 
tion. 

When in June, 1917, General Allenby was trans- 
ferred from the Western arena and put in charge 
of the Palestine expedition planned by General 
Murray, all his gifts both as a man and as a com- 
mander were soon brought into play. During the 
parching heat of the summer months when noth- 
ing could go forward except plans for the offen- 
sive in the autumn, Allenby studied the situation 
point by point, noting the entrenchments of the 
enemy and the natural obstacles to be overcome. 
Here he proved that by careful preparation he 
could forestall difficulties, commanding success by 
a wise and prudent generalship that matched his 
daring gallantry when fighting against odds. 

Now the Tommies who had been whiling away 
some of the summer days by going about with 
Bibles as Baedekers, trying to identify various 
places mentioned in church, were drawn up along 
a front of twenty-two miles from the sea opposite 
Gaza to Gamli. They faced the Turks who were 
strongly entrenched from Gaza to Beersheba, a 
distance of about thirty miles. It was General 
Allenby 's plan to make various feint attacks to 
distract the enemy's attention, and then to strike 

185 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

boldly at Beersheba, where he knew there was an 
ample water supply, forcing the Turks out with 
a suddenness that would prevent them from dam- 
aging the famous wells. 

The attack had all the effect of an unexpected 
pounce. The infantry was marched forward dur- 
ing the night, for the least movement over the 
parched ground raised clouds of dust that would 
have at once proclaimed their approach over a 
country covered only by a sparse growth of trees 
and cactus hedges. During the day, therefore, 
the Tommies lay hidden in the dry, pebbly ravine 
of a wadi, and wondered if it was from the bed of 
this stream that David drew his five smooth stones 
to slay the giant. 

On the calm, moonlit night of October 30, the 
men prepared for a rush on a hill just south of 
the city, where a German machine gun section was 
implanted. So sudden was the onslaught that 
the guns were silenced and the hill carried before 
the eight officers and eighty men who were cap- 
tured had chance to realize their plight. After 
a bombardment by field guns which had been 
placed at the right range to cut through the wire 
entanglements, the infantry dashed forward, 
screened by the pall of sand raised by the bursting 

186 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

shells, tore down the wire from its iron supports, 
and fairly swept the astonished Turks from the 
entrenchments they had thought well-nigh im- 
pregnable. Through the gate-way thus opened by 
the infantry, the Australian cavalry charged into 
the town from the east, completed the capture, 
and, by commanding the Hebron road, shut off 
retreat in that direction. Warehouses full of 
grain, which bore signs of hasty, futile attempts 
to destroy the stores, gave evidence to the surprise 
of the attack. 

There was a pause for a day or two in the firing, 
when the Tommies with the Bibles could gather 
about the two circular wells of clear, pure water, 
and speculate freely as to which was the well dug 
by Abraham, which spot was the place where the 
patriarch received the command to sacrifice Isaac, 
and which stone might have been the altar where 
Jacob made his burnt offering to Jehovah on the 
journey into Egypt. 

' ' How far is it to Dan ? ' ' asked an American Red 
Cross worker who chanced to recall that the phrase 
"from Dan to Beersheba" indicated the extent 
from north to south of the Hebrew territory. 

"About a hundred and fifty miles," he was as- 
sured authoritatively. "Palestine is only a very 

187 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

little larger than your Massachusetts ; but no man 
from the Hub even, would dare to contend that 
this narrow strip of barren, hilly country is not 
more precious to the world than any other portion 
of the earth's surface." 

"I wonder," said the Red Cross man hastily, 
as if trying to stem the tide of an earnest discourse, 
"if General Allenby will make it possible for me 
to take a stroll from Dan to Beersheba one of 
these days before I go back to our little America.' 9 

(It may be added here by way of parenthesis 
that he was indeed accorded that privilege.) 

But first the Tommies and the Australian light 
horse had the fine excitement of taking Gaza, the 
modern city built over the ancient town of the 
Philistines for which the strong man of the Israel- 
ites, Samson, showed his contempt by carrying 
away its gates, leaving them casually on a neigh- 
boring hill-top. The Turks had an elaborate sys- 
tem of trenches about the place which would have 
exacted a costly toll of British lives without Gen- 
eral Allenby 's strategy. By a flank attack before 
daylight, he succeeded in rolling back the enemy 
on the left step by step, until Gaza, the scene of 
many sieges from the time it was a possession of 
the Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph," 1300 B. C, 

188 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

until it was quietly pocketed by Napoleon in 1799, 
was captured. Now it was once more laid in ruins, 
by the Turks who waited to destroy what they 
could not carry off. The near view, therefore, of 
the houses, which with their red-topped roofs and 
colored walls had looked rather picturesque as 
seen over the olive groves, was a distinct disap- 
pointment ; but the Tommies found much to inter- 
est them in the captured defenses of the enemy. 
There were dugouts with head covers of thick palm 
logs thatched with sand bags, which led to shelters 
a dozen feet below ground. Dense hedges of 
cactus, in many places untouched by the bombard- 
ment, screened machine guns which would have 
done deadly work but for the strategy of the cap- 
ture. 

They were now on the open rolling Plains of 
Philistia, dotted with little villages enclosed within 
mud walls and surrounded by plantations of dates 
and olives. Here the cavalry in a dashing charge 
across a flat expanse swept by the gun fire of the 
enemy, succeeded in capturing Junction Station 
on the Jerusalem-Damascus Railroad, thus cutting 
in two the Turkish army, part of which had with- 
drawn eastward into the mountains near Jerusa- 
lem, the other section retreating north across the 

189 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

plain. In summing up in his official report the 
results of the first fortnight of his campaign, Gen- 
eral Allenby said : 

"In fifteen days our force had advanced sixty 
miles on its right and about forty miles on its left. 
It had driven a Turkish army of nine infantry 
divisions and one cavalry division out of a posi- 
tion in which it had been entrenched for six 
months, and had pursued it, giving battle when- 
ever it attempted to stand, and inflicting on it 
losses amounting probably to nearly two-thirds of 
the enemy's original effectives. Over 9,000 pris- 
oners, about 80 guns, more than 100 machine guns, 
and very large quantities of ammunition and other 
stores had been captured." 

Jaffa, or Joppa as it was called in ancient times, 
the seaport of Jerusalem, where in the time of 
Solomon's glory the wealth of the world was 
brought, and where the famous cedars of Lebanon 
were sent by King Hiram of Tyre for the building 
of the Hebrew temple, was seized on November 
17. Preparations for taking the "city set on the 
hill," without firing a shot which would imperil 
its sacred buildings were now well under way. 
If General Allenby had not feared to harm even 
the approaches to the holy city, it might have fallen 

190 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

into his hands much sooner. As it was, he de- 
termined to close in upon it, pushing on the con- 
struction of the railway, insuring a water supply, 
and taking every opportunity for the landing of 
stores along the coast. As the main way from 
Jaffa to Jerusalem, the only road possible for 
wheeled transport, had been damaged by the Turks 
at several points, it was necessary to stop to make 
repairs before the artillery could be brought up. 

They were now in the Judaean hill country, a 
land of steep, craggy, limestone cliffs, intersected 
by narrow valleys. Here to the northwest of 
Jerusalem, the Turks made a determined stand, 
fearing that communication would be cut off from 
the city, which they could hardly hope to hold now 
that the way to the sea was gone, but which as 
one of the holy cities of their faith, they could not 
bring themselves to surrender without a struggle. 

Early in November, however, the Turkish of- 
ficials with the Germans and Austrians began to 
take their flight along the Shechem road, where 
from the towers of the city or from the Mount of 
Olives, one could see a double line of dust rising 
for several days as a continuous stream of carts 
and camels made what haste they could with their 
heavy loads. The German commander, Falken- 

191 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

hayn, marched down from Aleppo with much 
bluster of efficient Kultur to pull together the de- 
moralized army, but in a day or two he decided to 
follow the dusty way along the road to Shechem. 
When on December 8, General Allenby's troops 
appeared in sight of Jerusalem, a wild panic seized 
the Turks who still lingered weakly about the city. 
Some threw away their guns as they fled; others 
driven by their officers were compelled to pick up 
their arms and stagger along hopelessly to the 
hills. 

But the inhabitants of the land — Syrians, Jews 
and Arabs, who had prayed for deliverance from 
the misrule of the Turk — were transported with 
joy. They had had glimpses of the prosperity 
of Egypt under the fair treatment of the English. 
Arab traders, too, who had been delivered from 
pirates blessed the strong arm of England, whose 
navy policed the waters which the Turk had never 
succeeded in making safe for commerce. After 
four hundred years of hateful bondage to rulers 
who had done nothing for the development of the 
country, but had through their oppressions 
robbed it of all its fertility and wealth, the Jews 
also saw the dawn of a new era of freedom and 
peace. There was a great running to and fro by 

192 




Photograph by Press Illustrating Service. Inc. 

GENERAL SIR EDMUND ALLENBY 

Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

girls and women calling to men who had hidden 
away for fear of being seized for deportation. 
' ' The Turks are running, ' ' they cried. ' \ The day 
of deliverance is come ! ' ' 

On December 10 the encircling of the city was 
complete. Welsh and English troops from the 
direction of Bethlehem, driving back the enemy on 
the east, commanded the road to Jericho, and at 
the same time there was an attack on the north and 
northwest. The city surrendered without a shot 
being fired within its walls. 

At noon on December 11, 1917, just four hun- 
dred years after the capture of the city by the Turks 
in 1517, General Allenby entered Jerusalem rev- 
erently on foot, accompanied by the commanders 
of the French and Italian detachments, and the 
military attaches of France, Italy and America. 
At the Jaffa gate they were received by guards 
representing the troops of the different nations 
who had taken part in the campaign — England, 
Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, 
India, France, and Italy. It was as if each in 
that solemn moment of triumph gave thanks in the 
name of his nation and of humanity for the deliver- 
ance of the city of the Prince of Peace. 

There were some there who contrasted this 
193 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

humble reverent procession with the pomp of the 
German emperor's entry in 1898, when a portion 
of the wall was thrown down in order that he and 
his imperial escort would not have to ride out of 
their direct path to one of the ancient gates. 
' ' Could there be a more perfect symbol of the dif- 
ference between the aims of the nations who are 
fighting for the peace of the world, and the Ger- 
mans who with their Turkish allies are struggling 
to preserve their autocratic power !" it was asked. 
General Allenby's proclamation was a further 
illustration of the spirit of the conquerors who 
had driven out the Turk and now guaranteed to 
the oppressed peoples of the land the right to work 
out their salvation in their own way. Written in 
Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, Greek 
and Russian, it gave the following assurance : 

Lest any of you be alarmed by reason of your experience 
at the bands of tbe enemy wbo bas retired, I bereby inform 
you tbat it is my desire tbat every person sbould pursue bis 
lawful business without fear of interruption. Furthermore, 
since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents 
of three of the great religions of mankind, and its soil bas 
been consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of devout 
people of these religions for many centuries, therefore, I 
make it known to you that every sacred building, monument, 
holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, 
or customary place of prayer of whatsoever form of the three 

194 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

religions will be maintained according to the existing cus- 
toms and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacked. 

Guardians have been established at Bethlehem and on 
Rachel's tomb. The tomb at Hebron has been placed under 
exclusive Moslem control. The hereditary custodians at the 
gates of the Holy Sepulchre have been requested to take up 
their accustomed duties in remembrance of the magnanimous 
act of the Caliph Omar who protected that church. 

About the famous Mosque of Omar a cordon of 
Mohammedan guards were stationed, beyond which 
only Moslems might pass. 

"We are in the hands of a just man, Allah be 
praised !" said a tall Arab, who looked half -derv- 
ish, half -brigand, with a devout gesture. "And 
the name, Allenby, is a sign to the enlightened — - 
Allah Nabi, which is to say God and Prophet. We 
Arabs have a prophecy: 'He who shall save Jeru- 
salem and exalt her among the nations will enter 
the city on foot, and his name shall be God, the 
Prophet.' " 

There was no difficulty in holding the "occupied 
territory' ' held in trust by Allenby 's army, for 
the inhabitants of the land in their joyful welcome 
of the conquerors made it clear that to them it 
was liberated territory. Many of the Jewish 
youth who had succeeded in evading the Turks 
begged to be allowed to join the ranks of their 

195 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

deliverers, even though they knew that they would 
suffer dire punishment should the fortunes of war 
restore their former masters to power. 

Preparations for a second campaign included 
extensive road making and completion of lines of 
communication. Large armies of laborers from 
Egypt assisted the natives in laying macadam and 
dirt roads throughout southern Palestine. The 
railway from Cairo was now double tracked and 
the bridge across the Nile finished, thus greatly re- 
ducing the amount of necessary re-loading and 
simplifying the problem of supplies. 

During the winter rains and summer heat active 
campaigning was of course impossible, but in the 
autumn of 1918, General Allenby, now strongly 
established in the land about Jaffa and Jerusalem, 
was ready for a drive northward. Soon the Turks 
were swept from the country that had not only 
been feeding their army but also sending impor- 
tant contributions to Constantinople and Berlin. 

The first advance was made along the coast. 
Following the plan that had succeeded so bril- 
liantly at Beersheba, the troops moved forward un- 
der the cover of night, remaining hidden in orange 
and olive groves during the day. Thus the Turks 
from their observation posts saw no tell-tale col- 

196 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

limns of dust, and, since the Allies' air-fleet was 
able to sweep the sky clear of enemy planes, they 
could learn nothing of the movements of his army. 
Again as in his earlier victories, the artillery and 
infantry swept through the most elaborate sys- 
tem of defenses, opening a gate-way along the 
coast for the cavalry which swung around to attack 
from the east the villages that were already under 
fire from the south. 

"This skilful use of the cavalry was the most 
effective as well as the most spectacular feature 
of the Palestine campaign," said one of Allenby's 
men. "It was a wonderful sight — the charge of 
the Australian light horse and the splendid Indian 
troopers through the coast country to the rear of 
the enemy. Sweeping through wadis and heavy 
sand as if there could be no obstacles, the cavalry 
rounded up the Turks before they knew that they 
were being attacked." 

So thorough was Allenby's preparations, from 
the perfect organization of supply transports — 
carts, lorries, camel trains and donkey files — to the 
timing of artillery and infantry assaults in con- 
junction with the cavalry dash, that in little more 
than a fortnight the whole country north of Jeru- 
salem to Damascus and beyond had been wrested 

197 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

from the Turk. The submarine bases at Haifa 
and Beirut, which had menaced the whole of the 
eastern Mediterranean, were taken, and those 
harbors opened for supply ships, so that no longer 
would the army be compelled to depend on the rail- 
way across the desert. 

The victory was complete. The Turkish forces, 
killed or captured, were put out of existence as 
armies, and all of their material of war destroyed 
or seized. "The whole country which I have 
passed through is littered with abandoned and 
bombed transport and ammunition depots, motors, 
lorries, and a large amount of rolling stock, ' ' wrote 
a newspaper correspondent on September 22. 

Would the Turks try to gather together another 
army to dispatch to Aleppo to meet the two armies 
converging upon that point — General Marshall 
from his victories in Mesopotamia and General 
Allenby by way of Palestine? The surrender of 
Turkey to the Allies on October 31 put an end to 
all conjectures. The dominion of the Turk over 
unfortunate, subject peoples — Armenians, Jews, 
Syrians, and Arabs — was broken. A new victory 
had been won for peace. 

And Palestine, the land which like a well-spring 
of spiritual comfort and inspiration has given the 

198 



THE DELIVERER OF JERUSALEM 

world its greatest religious faiths, is to have an 
opportunity for free and untrammeled develop- 
ment. Those Jews who have never ceased to feel 
that they are exiles in other lands may return there 
to build up a nation about a restored Jerusalem. 

Dr. John H. Finley, who as Commissioner of 
the American Red Cross spent some time in Pales- 
tine, gave us a picture of General Allenby, the 
Crusader of the World War. "An evening that 
I shall longest remember/ ' he said, "was one that 
I spent with him at G. H. Q. over the Bible and 
George Adam Smith's Geography of the Holy 
Land. Here was a powerful, blunt-spoken, de- 
manding warrior, with the mind of a statesman 
and with a smile that would bring the children of 
the world in a crusade behind him. ' ' 

It is thus, or walking reverently with the officers 
of his staff into the holy city, that I like to think 
of the victorious commander, General Allenby, 
fighter for peace. 



199 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 
VICTOR EMANUEL AND HIS ARMIES 



The graves burst asunder, the dead rise to aid us; 

The martyrs and heroes whose sacrifice made us, 
With swords firmly grasped and with brows wreath'd with 
laurel, 

They rise now Italia' s freedom to greet! 
Then hasten, then haste! Onward press, brave battalions! 
Fling wide to the breeze freedom's banner, Italians! 
With sword and with musket press on in your ardor, 

With hearts that alone for Italia beat! 
Ye aliens abandon our home-land Italian, 

The hour is at hand, shake its dust from your feet! 

Garibaldi's War Hymn. 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 

THERE was once a man whom the world called 
a dreamer, but it happened that he had the 
power of dreaming true. He saw his nation, 
Italy, — a people with the most glorious heritage 
of service to humanity in the realms of law, art, 
literature, and science — a people without a coun- 
try. For the nation that had given to the world 
Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, Michael Angelo, 
Galileo and Columbus, was an unhappy collection 
of little warring states ruled over by tyrants who 
were the puppets of a foreign power — Austria. 
He saw the people of Italy struggling helplessly, 
vainly, to win freedom to live their life and work 
out their destiny in their own way. The dreamer, 
Mazzini, of all the sons of Italy best understood 
the heart and the disappointed hopes of this di- 
vided nation. 

" There must go forth,' ' he said, "from the 
midst of the old Italy that sees itself bound hand 
and foot, and says * Submission is the only wis- 
dom V the spirit of a young Italy that gloriously 

203 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

dares everything to win freedom for our native 
land." 

That first vision of the dreamer came to pass. 
There sprang up on every hand in answer to his 
call young, eager souls ready to live — and die if 
need be— for a new, liberated Italy. They were 
for the most part humble, unknown youths, rich 
only in their daring and their burning faith. 

"All great national movements,' ' wrote Maz- 
zini, "begin with the unknown mass of the people, 
without influence except for the faith and will 
that counts not difficulties. ' ' 

The lovers of liberty who gathered about the 
dreamer called themselves "Young Italy,' ' and 
this was the oath of their order : 

"In the name of God and of Italy. In the name 
of all the martyrs of the holy Italian cause who 
have fallen beneath foreign and domestic tyranny. 
By the love I bear to the land that gave my mother 
birth, and will be the home of my children. By the 
blush that rises to my brow when I stand before 
the citizens of other lands, to know that I have no 
rights of citizenship, no country and no national 
flag. By the memory of our former greatness and 
the sense of our present degradation. By the 
tears of Italian mothers for their sons dead on the 

204 



THE SPIRIT OF GAEIBALDI 

scaffold, in prison, or in exile. By the sufferings 
of the millions — I swear to dedicate myself wholly 
and forever to striving to constitute Italy one, 
free, independent, republican nation." 

The torch was lighted and Young Italy was 
handing it on from one cold, unthinking, or de- 
spairing group to another until the land was aflame 
with patriotic ardor. But everywhere there were 
Austrian spies ready to stamp out the glowing 
fires. How could the dream come true? Italy's 
soul was awake, but where was the sword and the 
mighty hand to draw it in the name of liberty ? 

Then there came to Mazzini a man to whom to 
feel and think meant to act, and he knew that the 
cause had found its captain. Giuseppe Garibaldi 
— whose name itself meant "bold in war" — 
would be the mighty arm of Italy to strike the 
first blow in the fight for freedom. 

The new leader came of humble people who had 
worked hard to give their bright, promising boy 
a good start in the world, hoping that he would 
make a priest. " There is nothing like learning," 
said his father who was a sailor on a trading ves- 
sel. "Many voyages make you love home; and 
many questions make you long to know what the 
books can teach." 

205 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

" There is nothing like going and doing," said 
the boy. ' ■ The more I read the more I hate to sit 
still and hear about things, instead of getting ont 
and being a part of them. I want to be a sailor. ' ' 

"You have the adventuring fancy,' ' said his 
father with a sigh. "The sea has cast its spell 
on you." But he took the lad with him on his 
next voyage. 

It was a great day for the boy when he first saw 
Rome. As he gazed upon the Eternal City his 
heart was strangely stirred. How wonderful was 
the past when Rome had been the capital of the 
world, and how pitiful was the present ! He heard 
it whispered, "When will Italy have faith in the 
future as well as pride in the past, and boldly rise 
up, a free nation, with courage to cast out her 
foreign masters !" 

That trip to Rome was the beginning of a new 
existence. Even while he exulted in the bold, free 
life of the sea, he felt a strange undercurrent of 
sadness. Italy, the fairest and most glorious of 
countries, was in chains. He had longed to fare 
forth and taste the spice of adventure in far-off 
lands; now he knew that the great adventure 
awaited him at home in the fight for his country's 
freedom. 

206 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 

As the visit to Rome was the first real event of 
Garibaldi's life, so the meeting with Mazzini was 
the second. The heart and hand of Young Italy 
were paired. But the time was not ripe for the 
crusade. Garibaldi, who had enlisted in the navy 
in order that he might win the sailors to the great 
cause, found that he was counted a conspirator 
against the country he longed to serve, and that 
his life was forfeit. 

An exile from Italy, the young patriot went to 
South America, and was soon in the midst of the 
struggles of the peoples there for liberty. He 
gathered about him a band of his fellow country- 
men who had sought refuge or adventure in the 
new world. The cause of freedom in Uruguay 
and Brazil owed much to the free-lance, Garibaldi, 
who proved himself a veritable genius of impro- 
vised, guerilla warfare, and a born leader of men. 
His disinterested enthusiasm kindled ardor in oth- 
ers and won a loyal, devoted following. For four- 
teen years he lived and served the people's cause 
in South America, knowing all the time that he' 
was preparing himself for the day when he could 
return with his "Legion" to fight for Italy. 

That great moment came in 1848, when the spirit 
of democracy swelled like a mighty flood through 

207 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

Europe, sweeping all before it. In France the 
people succeeded in overthrowing the monarchy 
imposed upon them after the defeat of Napoleon ; 
and in other countries thrones trembled and the 
people were granted constitutions. In Italy, the 
King of Sardinia and Piedmont, Charles Albert, 
the one ruler in divided Italy who was an Italian 
at heart, found courage to revolt against the tyr- 
anny of Austria. To him Garibaldi appeared 
with his Legion of fifty picked men of those who 
had proved themselves in the forests and on the 
plains of South America. If the King looked 
coldly at this wild band in their scarlet shirts and 
slouch hats of many strange sorts, the people 
did not. The fame of Garibaldi's exploits had 
thrilled Italians at home, and in a short time 
thirty thousand lovers of freedom gathered under 
the banner of the popular hero. The sword arm 
of Young Italy was ready to strike. 

As we pass in review the marvellous story of 
Garibaldi's leadership, and seek to discover the 
secret of the power that made him first in the 
battles for freedom and first in the hearts of 
Italians, let us recall the tribute of the admiral 
of the British squadron who knew him in South 
America: "He was the only truly disinterested 

208 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 

individual I knew; and his courage was equalled 
by bis great military talent." Always fighting 
against heavy odds, he went from victory to vic- 
tory for a redeemed Italy, wearing his success 
and his power as simply as he had ever worn his 
red shirt and scarlet-lined poncho, which were to 
his followers as the helmet of Navarre in another 
historic struggle. There were times when Victor 
Emmanuel I of Italy, (son and successor of Charles 
Albert of Sardinia), and his minister, Cavour, 
whose masterly diplomacy at the helm of the ship 
of state carried the newly-made constitutional 
monarchy through many storms, fairly held their 
breath. Would victory and popularity make of 
Young Italy's General another Napoleon? But 
that " Grand Old Lion of Democracy" had only 
one ambition — to see Italy free. And when it was 
clear that the organization and discipline of the 
regular army fettered his powers, Victor Em- 
manuel said, "Go where you like, do what you 
like ; I feel only one regret, that I am not able to 
follow you. ' ' 

As he was unspoiled by fair fortune, so he was 
undismayed when at the turn of her wheel he was 
cast down. There was a dark time when Italy 
was not only fighting Austria, but also France, 

209 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

her erstwhile friend and ally, since Louis Na- 
poleon had come to the support of the Pope in his 
protest against the separation of Church and 
State. Garibaldi, again forced into exile, lived 
for a while in New York, where he earned his liv- 
ing making tallow candles. "Each one is a taper 
for liberty," he used to say, his glowing brown 
eyes alight with the smile that won the hearts of 
all who knew him. 

Garibaldi lived to see the greater part of his 
beloved Italy an independent country under one 
flag, but still Austria held in her grip the Trentino 
which put at her back the mountains that formed 
Italy 's natural boundary and bulwark. The an- 
cient enemy had, then, a position of military con- 
trol over Lombardy and Venetia, and, indeed, of 
the whole "boot," since the valleys of the Tren- 
tino led into the heart of the richest industrial 
and commercial territory of Italy. 

Well did Nature for our State provide, 
When the bulwark of the Alps she put 
Twixt us and German fury, 

sang the poet Petrarch. The claim, therefore, 
upon the portion of Italia irredenta (unredeemed 
Italy) known as the Trentino, is based not only 
upon tradition and sentiment — upon the fact that 

210 



THE SPIEIT OF GAEIBALDI 

it once was Italy and still is, for the most part, 
Italy in feeling and speech — but also, and even 
more compellingly upon the necessity of self- 
preservation. Austria's position on the com- 
manding peaks with control over the gateways — 
mountain passes and river beds — into the neigh- 
boring dominion, was a perpetual menace. 

All true Italians feel that the leaders of the 
struggle for a free, united country — Mazzini, 
Garibaldi and Cavour — watch from their graves 
to see the completion of their work. When Cavour 
died Eome and Venice were still unredeemed. 
' i They are the heart and crown of Italy, ' ' he said ; 
"they must soon be hers. As to the Trentino and 
the Tyrol, that is the work of another generation." 
Not only to the old men of that next generation 
but to their stalwart sons were those words a 
solemn charge. 

Austria was also still in possession of the east- 
ern coast of the Adriatic — Istria and Dalmatia, 
which were until Napoleon meddled with the map 
of Europe, part of Venetia. The port of Trieste, 
although it had been subject to Austria for sev- 
eral centuries, was in population two-thirds Italian 
to one-third Slav. This coast land which belonged 
to Italy historically was, moreover, hers by the 

211 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

hard logic of geographical position, since the 
Adriatic must, for any reasonable security to the 
people of the peninsula, be in effect an Italian sea, 
as the eastern coast of Italy is entirely at the 
mercy of the opposite shore which possesses the 
natural harbors. The waters enclosed by the 
Istrian Peninsula and Dalmatia had been during 
the reign of the Caesars a Roman lake, and at a 
later period the queen-lagoon of Venice. The 
poet d'Annunzio speaks for Italians everywhere 
when he says : ' ' The name of this deep sea, where 
the foam on every wave is a flower of Italian 
glory, is and shall be forever, in the language of all 
nations, the Gulf of Venice." 

"With all the bitter memories of past wrongs and 
the ever-present longing to reclaim the Italia ir- 
redenta represented by Trieste and the Trentino, 
how did it happen that Italy became a member of 
the Triple Alliance, linking herself by treaty to her 
ancient enemy f Many thought Italy 's moral posi- 
tion at the beginning of the Great War as inde- 
fensible as her geographical frontiers. "Why 
make an alliance one day to break it the next?" 
said the man in the street. "Italy is going to be 
sure to cast in her lot with the winning side." 

The Triple Alliance was, however, from the 
212 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 

standpoint of Italy nothing but a league to en- 
force peace. At the time it was formed in 1882, 
she wanted above all else a chance for internal 
adjustment and quiet growth. According to the 
terms of the pact the allies were bound to come 
to the assistance of one of their number only in 
case that nation was attacked by another power. 
This provision for mutual defense was further 
qualified by Italy's stipulation that she should in 
no event be involved in a war with Great Britain. 
For Italy is linked to England by the triple bond 
of traditional friendship, kindred ideals, and ma- 
terial interest ; and, should the first two links fail, 
her exposed position in the Mediterranean would 
make it suicidal for her to be party to a quarrel 
with the Mistress of the Seas. 

At the beginning of the Great War, therefore, 
Italy's position was in no sense dubious. She at 
once declared herself neutral since her partners 
in the Alliance were the aggressors. Though her 
sympathies were all with those who were fighting 
for freedom and a just peace, she hesitated to 
fling herself headlong into the arena. For Italy 
has to depend on other nations for coal, iron, and 
food enough for her people. How could she go 
unprepared into war? 

213 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

So much for considerations of common pru- 
dence which the guiding powers of a nation do 
well to weigh carefully. But what of the spirit 
of Garibaldi — the crusading spirit that rides 
against wrong and injustice without counting the 
cost — was that dead in the land? 

As soon as the war broke out the seven grand- 
sons of the beloved patriot foregathered from the 
four corners of the earth — two from America, one 
from a sugar plantation in Cuba, two from en- 
gineering tasks in China and in Egypt, and the 
two youngest from schools in Italy — to take part 
in the struggle. Six of them (one could not leave 
his railway in China until Italy entered the war) 
volunteered for service in the Foreign Legion in 
France; and a sister, Italia, who had been or- 
ganizing Red Cross work in Rio de Janeiro, was 
also ready to serve. Let us hear what the Gari- 
baldis themselves had to say about Italy and the 
war: 

"I don't recall,' ' said Colonel Giuseppe Gari- 
baldi to a sympathetic listener as they sat at sup- 
per one January evening in his hut on the Italian 
Alpine front, "I don't recall anything that was 
actually said between us on the subject, but it 
seemed to be generally understood among us 

214 



THE SPIEIT OF GARIBALDI 

brothers that the shedding of some Garibaldi 
blood — or, better still, the sacrifice of a Garibaldi 
life — would be calculated to throw a great, per- 
haps a decisive, weight into the wavering balance 
in Italy, where a growing sympathy for the cause 
of the Allies only needed a touch to quicken it 
into action. Indeed I think that my father said 
something to that effect to the two younger boys 
before he sent them on to France. . . . Well — 
Bruno got his bullet the last week in December, 
and Constante fell on the 5th of January. Ezio 
— the youngest of the three fire-eaters — had to 
wait to take his bullet from the Austrians on our 
own front. 

"The attack in which Bruno fell was one of the 
finest things I have ever seen. General Gouraud 
sent for me in person to explain why a certain 
system of trenches must be taken and held, no 
matter what the price. We mustered for Mass 
at midnight — it was Christmas or the day after, 
I believe — and the memory of the icicle-framed 
altar in the ruined, roofless church, with the flick- 
ering candles throwing just enough light to sil- 
houette the tall form of Gouraud, who stood in 
front of me, will never fade from my mind. 

"We went over the parapet before daybreak, 
215 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

and it was in the first light of the cold winter dawn 
that I saw Bruno— plainly hit— straighten up from 
his running crouch and topple into the first of the 
German trenches. He was up before I could 
reach him, however, and I saw him clamber up on 
the other side, and, running without hitch or stag- 
ger, lead his men in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. 
• • • 

"They found his body, with six bullet wounds 
upon it, lying where the gust from a machine- 
gun had caught him as he tried to climb out and 
lead his men beyond the last of the trenches we 
had been ordered to take and hold. He had 
charged into the trench, thrown out the enemy, 
and made — for whatever it was worth — the first 
sacrifice of his own generation of Garibaldi. We 
sent his body to my father and mother in Eome, 
where, as you will remember, his funeral was made 
the occasion of the most remarkable patriotic dem- 
onstration Italy has known in recent years. Con- 
stante's death a few days later only gave added 
impulse to the wave of popular feeling which was 
soon to align Italy where she belonged, in the fore- 
front of the fight for the freedom of Europe. ' ' 

Any one who has read about the Italian cam- 
paign in the Alps knows that the Garibaldi spirit 

216 




Photograph by Paul Thomj 



VICTOR EMMANUEL III 
King of Italy 



s 



THE SPIEIT OF GARIBALDI 

Was not confined to those of the name and blood ; 
but, from Victor Emmanuel III, patriot-king and 
comrade of his men on the battle front, to the faith- 
ful workers at the end of the communication lines, 
all were of one mind and heart. Many are the 
stories told of the courage and kindliness of the 
king, for to the people this monarch who • 1 reigns 
but does not rule" is the incarnate spirit of Italy. 
... A wounded boy had been brought into a field 
hospital in the Trentino after a violent attack on 
the Italian trenches. Seeing the King who was 
going about as his habit was among the men await- 
ing the care of the surgeons, he roused himself and 
pointed proudly to his shattered leg. "For you, 
sire!" he said. "No," replied the King, looking 
into the boy's eyes with simple friendliness and 
raising his hand to the military salute, "No, my 
son, not for me, but for Italy ! ' ' 

"At the front the King is just one of the men," 
it was said, ' ' a soldier with the sense of duty of a 
soldier. His presence is militarily unnecessary; 
he attempts no leadership, but his knowledge is of 
much use to the Staff conducting operations. Of 
course what counts most is his presence, or rather 
his life at the front, as an example. He has none of 
the comforts of his generals, or even of many of 

217 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

his colonels ; and this, not from any desire to pose, 
but because he is a soldier and not a leader. He 
sleeps on a camp bed even when he sleeps in a 
villa — these are small but not useless details — 
and eats at a table covered with oilcloth, taking two 
courses at most, like the rancio of his soldiers. 
War has changed in methods and character; the 
present King's grandfather could ride in the 
midst of his fighting soldiers and make a paint- 
able picture, but the present sovereign address- 
ing his troops would make an unimpressive figure. 
But there isn't a hospital at the front which he 
has not visited, and his relations with stricken 
soldiers are those of a comrade.' ' 

The spirit of Garibaldi, the crusader, who loved 
Italy and freedom more than life, was the spirit 
that animated the King and the King's armies. 
Can you imagine what the Alpine campaigns were 
like — what it meant to advance through the moun- 
tain passes against the fire of the enemy en- 
trenched on the heights? Every peak was a cita- 
del which nature had made well-nigh impregnable. 
But with the double motive of guarding the gate- 
ways into their beloved home-land and also re- 
deeming her crowning glory of mountain country 
from the Austrian hold, the men of the south 

218 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 

climbed on and fought on, by their ready action 
and gallant heroism overcoming much of the ini- 
tial advantage that position gave to the enemy. 

We may indicate something of what this heroic 
endeavor meant when we recall that before the war 
Italy had only one corps of trained mountain 
troops — the famous Alpini — while to-day there is 
a mighty army inured to perpendicular warfare, 
and all that calls for in the scaling of precipices 
and glaciers ; in battling with avalanches and land- 
slides as well as with cannons; in cutting tunnels 
and trenches through solid rock; and in building 
aerial tramways to swing supplies along wire rope 
cables from peak to peak. 

Was there ever such amazing warfare as that 
on the gleaming heights of the Alps where each 
summit was an observation post or a stronghold 
whose artillery fire loosened avalanches from the 
slopes to overwhelm the assailants below, while 
the enemy could remain hidden in rocky caves 
secure from bombardment? One such fastness 
which the Italians actually stormed and captured 
included an elaborate system of gun chambers, 
vaults for storing ammunition and supplies, and 
officers' sleeping quarters with communicating 
passages, all safely nestled in the heart of the 

219 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

craggy peak. "The Austrians know how to be 
comfortable; perhaps that is why they are some- 
times caught napping,' ' said a captain of the 
Alpini. "Their rock galleries were even heated 
and lighted by electricity.' ' 

Think of having to climb with the impedimenta 
of guns and blankets and lead sure-footed mules 
to drag cannon and carry supply-packs and hos- 
pital equipment. Over the teleferic railways wire 
baskets slide along the stout cables to help carry 
field guns, ammunition, food, and water to the 
heights, and bring back the seriously wounded 
one or two at a time. The men, camouflaged in 
white caps and coats and armed with ice-axes and 
alpenstocks as well as guns, frequently went for- 
ward on skis, by means of which they could in a 
moment descend from an advanced position to a 
sheltered place below. 

The battles of the peaks have more in common 
with the individual fighting of olden times than 
anything else in modern warfare. Astonishingly 
small groups of men may surprise, storm, and — 
if all goes well — carry the points where the enemy 
lies in wait. There is the thrill of splendid ad- 
venture in an expedition where a snow-crowned 
summit is captured by twenty men or a difficult 

220 



THE SPIRIT OF GARIBALDI 

pass above the clouds seized by a single company 
aided only by three or four field guns. 

Large forces of men could not work together 
on that battleground of heights and depths, and 
if they could it would be impossible to solve the 
problem of supplies and communication lines. 
"On the ordinary battle-fronts, like those of 
France and Russia,' ' said Colonel Garibaldi, "it 
requires rather less than one man on the line of 
communications to maintain one man in the front- 
line trenches. For the whole Italian front the 
average is something more than two men on the 
communications to one in the first line; but at 
points in the Alps it may run up to six, or even 
eight or ten in bad weather.' ' The daring 
fighters, then, are the apex of a pyramid which 
holds because it stands on a solid base of sound 
organization. 

Sidney Low in his graphic account of "Italy in 
the War," gives a picture of the storming of 
Monte Cristallo whose sheer rock face rises some 
5,000 feet above the Italian approach: "The Al- 
pini attacked it armed with ropes, climbing-irons, 
and rock-drills. For a week they worked at the 
escalade, ignored by the Austrians, who never ex- 
pected that any attempt could be made to reach 

221 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

them up this apparently insurmountable cliff. 
But the pioneers drove rings and iron pegs into 
the wall of rock, and from day to day mounted 
higher, while their comrades followed up the lad- 
der they had made. Gradually they collected in 
the gullies and clefts under the summit ; and then 
one night they stole out on the crest and rushed 
the Austrian garrison, too surprised and dismayed 
to offer more than a feeble resistance to these 
shouting groups of fierce foes, who seemed to have 
descended upon them out of the clouds." 

As the Italians won their way by faith, daring, 
and miracles of engineering skill from point to 
point in the Trentine Alps, so they advanced to- 
wards Trieste across the treacherous Isonzo River 
and through mountain fastnesses that blocked the 
way. The passage of the Isonzo north of Gorizia 
under the deadly fire from points of vantage all 
around was one of the most marvellous feats of 
the war. Here the engineers actually turned into 
another channel the main current of the river 
which flows at this point through a deep gorge, 
and constructed bridges over the shallow stream 
that remained. This work was all done stealthily 
at night and the water rediverted into its accus- 
tomed bed at daybreak. By means of the bridges 

222 



THE SPIEIT OF GARIBALDI 

so built and pontoons, the Italians swarmed over 
the river and dug themselves in on the lower levels 
of the Bainsizza Plateau, and through a surprise 
attack, gained a foothold on the northern edge of 
the rocky upland which the amazed Austrians 
had thought impregnable. Monte Santo was sur- 
rounded and captured a week later and the heights 
of Monte San Gabriele were next taken. Before 
the Austrians could recover and rally their forces 
the Italians had seized Gorizia. 

As they toiled upward and onward, the con- 
querors were consciously building for the future. 
Mountain trails grew into roads where lines of 
concrete posts marked the ledges of the precipices, 
and bridges of stone or steel were built over the 
torrents. In many places two roads were made, 
one for ascent and the other for descent ; and pipe- 
lines were run from the valleys to carry water to 
the crests of the mountains. The engineering 
feats of the Alpine fighters were no less remark- 
able than their triumphs at arms. 

After more than two years of titanic struggle 
that carried them inch by inch from the lowlands 
to the heights fortified by Nature and surrounded 
by the Isonzo as by a moat, it seemed that the 
Italians were about to reach the rocky gateway 

223 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

that opened into the castle of their hopes — Trieste 
— when they were suddenly overwhelmed by dis- 
aster, and obliged to yield in a few weeks all that 
they had so hardly won. 

The loss of Russia to the cause of the Allies ush- 
ered in the tragic reverse. Germany shifted 100,- 
000 men from the Russian border together with 
some of her heaviest artillery to save Trieste for 
Austria; but before launching her attack she be- 
gan her offensive with intrigue. The Austrian 
socialists were encouraged to fraternize with their 
Italian neighbors and assure them that they would 
make war against war by refusing to fight further. 
The war was over in Russia, they said, and de- 
termined socialists could soon put an end to it 
everywhere. When the vigilance and the morale 
of the Italians were thoroughly relaxed, the Aus- 
trian front lines were suddenly withdrawn and re- 
placed by German " shock troops,' ' who broke 
through the Isonzo front with a terrific rush, and, 
by threatening to outflank the armies, compelled 
a retreat that was at first dangerously like a rout. 
The very existence of the armies seemed im- 
perilled. 

But at the Piave River, which had been a train- 
ing-place for recruits, and so was provided with 

224 



THE SPIEIT OF GAEIBALDI 

a system of modern trenches and fortifications, the 
Italians rallied for a determined stand. French 
and British infantry were arriving to help restore 
the morale of the troops shaken by defeat. The 
line on the Piave held. As at Verdun, the watch- 
word was "They shall not pass!" The railroads 
were destroyed to keep the enemy from bringing 
up their heavy artillery ; the area between Venice 
and the mouth of the Piave was flooded to prevent 
the Austrians from crossing the river there; and 
the sentinel heights overlooking the Piave valley 
held in spite of the most desperate onslaughts. 
The Piave will rank with the Marne as the scene 
of one of the most heroic and glorious struggles 
of all time. 

It seemed as if Fate demanded that after their 
hard-won successes the Italians should be further 
proved by the bitter discipline of defeat before 
tasting the fruits of victory. Then, in the summer 
of 1918, when the Austrians had gathered all their 
forces for a gigantic offensive on the Piave, Italy 
won as decisive a triumph as that of the Marne. 
The million men who had been urged forward by 
promises of rich stores of food just beyond the 
river, were put to confusion at that stream like 
the host of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, and the victors 

225 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

pursuing the defeated and demoralized army, cap- 
tured men and horses by the hundred-thousand, 
together with vast stores of ammunition and sup- 
plies, and pressed on in triumph to Trieste and 
Trent. The dream of Mazzini and Garibaldi was 
realized; the flag of a free, united people floated 
over all Italy, redeemed at last. "Your victory 
has created a new Italy in a new Europe/ ' de- 
clared the President of France in welcoming King 
Victor Emmanuel to the gathering of the nations 
at Paris. 

The spirit of Garibaldi! "One hero have I 
known," wrote the French historian, Michelet, 
"Garibaldi, the grand of soul! Always loftier 
than fortune, how sublimely does his memory rise 
and swell towards the future!" It is, as we have 
seen, in the strength of that spirit which dares all 
in a good cause, that Italy has fought her battles 
of the Great War and won her splendid triumph. 



226 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

GENERAL PERSHING 



"Lafayette, we are here!" 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

It was one of the wisest of men who once said, 
"Knowledge is virtue," and while many could 
point out proofs of the fallacy of this saying, the 
life of General Pershing is a striking case where 
it has proved true. 

"Johnny" Pershing longed for an education 
as most boys long for adventure. Dimly he felt 
that it was the way to a freer life. Starting out 
on that path he would find that all roads were 
his. As he hoed the corn on his father's little 
farm he dreamed of school days after the haying 
season should be over and the fields had yielded 
their harvest. 

"Well, I 'm off for school, Mother," he would 
say breathlessly, as he finished his morning 
chores and started on a run for the tiny frame 
school-house, which was yet the one place in the 
little frontier town of Laclede, Missouri, that 
commanded a view of the future and the outside 
world. It was not only because "Old Man An- 
gell" might be lurking behind the door with a 

229 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

switch to * ' touch up ' ' the legs of tardy boys that 
he strove to be there early. He was sure that the 
things of the school-house could put him on the 
path that wound out of Laclede, out of Missouri, 
into the world of opportunity. 

Perhaps this faith was the more remarkable 
because he was not by any means the "bright 
boy" of the school. His brother James, who 
was two years younger than he, was generally 
considered the more promising of the two. 
Something of the steady purpose, however, that 
led his Huguenot great-great-grandfather in 1724, 
to leave his home in Alsace, near the River Rhine, 
and seek his fortune as a pioneer in the new 
world was in that sturdy little Johnny Pershing, 
whose bright blue eyes, pink and white complex- 
ion, dimples, and fair, curly hair, could not con- 
ceal the fact that he was a "regular boy." 
Johnny knew that in Alsace his people had been 
called Pfoerschin, and that after they had settled 
in Pennsylvania it had been changed to Pershing 
as more American. He knew that his tall, broad- 
shouldered father — American pluck every inch 
of him — had been one whose adventurous spirit 
carried him to the West of golden opportunity. 
With only his strong body and brain as capital, 

230 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

he was working as boss track-layer on the North 
Missouri Railroad at the time he met and mar- 
ried Ann Elizabeth Thompson, whose people 
had pushed westward from the Blue Grass coun- 
try. Was it Kentucky warmth and sweetness 
mingled with Western energy and strength that 
made her just the best mother that a boy ever 
had? 

Even in those days at the village school Johnny 
Pershing's knowledge meant character. " What- 
ever he did, he did with all his might." "He 
was always dependable," said the people who 
knew the boy that grew to be the general. In the 
panic of 73, when the little fortune that his fa- 
ther had won by industry and thrift was suddenly 
swept away, John, then a lad of thirteen, worked 
hard in the fields to help support the younger 
children. So it was that the years passed, long 
seasons of work in the open that hardened his 
tall, vigorous body, and short terms of school 
that strengthened him in his resolve to get an 
education at any cost. 

There was a time when he taught the school 
for negro boys in Laclede ; they say that the nick- 
name " Black Jack" Pershing, which stuck by 
him through his West Point years, was a sou- 

231 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

venir of that episode in his career. Then for two 
years he taught the district school at Prairie 
Mound, nine miles away, in order that he might 
attend the spring term at the Kirksville Normal 
School. 

"I am not quite sure whether I 'm headed for 
teaching or the law as a career," he used to say 
at this time, "but first and last I 'm going to get 
as much education as I can manage to lasso.' ' 

It seemed now as if fate were putting him to 
the test before throwing open the door of oppor- 
tunity. The first move came in the guise of trou- 
ble; the Laclede post-office, which his father kept 
in connection with the village store, was robbed, 
and the postmaster had to make good the loss. 
At once young Pershing responded as waiting 
Destiny seemed to expect; he returned home and 
put in his father's hand the money he had saved 
to pay his way through the next school term. 

Then the happy chance came his way. He read 
in a paper the announcement of a competitive 
examination for admission to West Point. 

"I have no desire to enter the army," he said 
to his sister, "but isn't it a real opportunity to 
get more of an education than old Missouri can 
hold out?" 

232 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

"It certainly seems a chance that has come 
your way," she replied. "Why not let the result 
of the examination decide for you?" 

John Pershing carried off the prize by one 
point. "But it proved enough to point the way," 
he said. Despite this decision of fate, however, 
it was not at all clear that he wanted to be an 
army officer. "You know it 's the education I 'm 
after," he assured his mother, whose experi- 
ences during the Civil War in Missouri, where 
lawless raids and terrorism had at times held 
complete sway, filled her with hatred for even 
the thought of armies and a possible need of 
them. 

"Of course you cannot remember that dread- 
ful time," she said. (Pershing was born Sep- 
tember 13, 1860.) "But, my son, every one who 
lived through it knows that it cannot happen 
again. People are wiser now, in America, at 
least. They will find some better way of set- 
tling their disputes." 

"As soon as I have served long enough to pay 
Uncle Sam for my education I mean to go into 
something else," her son declared with convic- 
tion. "Some of the other fellows at the Point 
feel the same way, too. We have talked up a 

233 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

scheme for irrigation of land in Oregon, — one 
of the chaps knows about it, — which needs only 
that to make it the most wonderful farm coun- 
try in the world, and we Ve planned to form 
a company and put it through one of these 
days." 

With his boyhood chum, Charlie Spurgeon, he 
wandered off into the woods, where they threw 
themselves on the ground and, looking up at the 
sky through the tree-tops, talked over the plans 
for the future. 

"This country is at peace now, and it 's going 
to stay at peace," said young Pershing. "There 
won't be a gun fired in the next hundred years. 
The army is no place for me in peace times. I 'd 
start as a second lieutenant and I 'd get to be a 
first lieutenant only when a man ahead of me 
died. The world is going to be too peaceful in 
the future to make the army look promising as a 
career. ' ' 

And all the time, Fate standing by, listening, 
was looking wise and inscrutable. But any one 
would have been sure that it was a kindly fate. 
Was the stern goddess, relaxed for the moment, 
even smiling to herself and saying with Puck, 
"What fools these mortals be, — even the best 

234 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

of them, — not to be able to see and interpret their 
manifest destiny V 9 

For from the beginning of his career at West 
Point it was evident to every one that "Black 
Jack" Pershing of Missouri was a born soldier 
and leader of men. It was clear to General Mer- 
ritt, superintendent of the academy, as he cast 
his keen, appraising glance over the cadets under 
his charge, and Pershing was given the highest 
rank in the battalion that it was possible for him 
to attain each year. It was equally plain to his 
classmates, who made him their president unan- 
imously, no one else even being thought of in the 
moment of nomination. 

We may read for ourselves some of Pershing's 
impressions of his cadet days in a letter that 
he wrote from his post in the Philippines on the 
occasion of the twenty-fifth reunion of his class: 

The proudest days of my life, with one exception, have 
come to me in connection with West Point — days that stand 
out clear and distinct from all others. The first of these was 
the day I won my appointment at Trenton, Missouri, in a 
competitive examination with seventeen competitors. An old 
friend of the family happened to be in Trenton that day and, 
passing on the opposite side of the street, called to me and 
said, "John, I hear you passed with flying colors." In all 
seriousness, feeling the great importance of my success, I 
naively replied in a loud voice, "Yes, I did," feeling assured 

235 



FIGHTEES FOE PEACE 

that no one had ever passed such a fine examination as I 
had. The next red-letter day was when I was elected presi- 
dent of the class of '86. To realize that a body of men for 
whom I had such an affectionate regard should honor me in 
this way was about all my equilibrium would stand. The 
climax of days came when the makes were read out on gradu- 
ation day in June, 1885. Little Eddy Gayle smiled when I 
reported five minutes later with a pair of captain's chevrons 
pinned on my sleeves. No honor can ever come to equal that. 
I look upon it in the very small light to-day as I did then. 
Some way these days stand out, and the recollection of them 
has always been to me a great spur and stimulus. 

In those happy days at the academy how 
splendidly he showed that " Knowledge is vir- 
tue !" All that he thought and learned was im- 
mediately expressed in what he was and what he 
did. Never one of the brilliant students, — at 
graduation he stood thirtieth in the class of 
seventy-seven, — he was yet the leader of them 
all. 

"Pershing was absolutely dependable/ ' said 
one of his classmates in trying to explain his 
unique place in the cadet world; and another of 
his fellow-students, now a brigadier-general, ex- 
pressed the same thing in different words. "He 
was solid, the sort of chap you knew you could 
always count on. ' ' 

"Black Jack's influence was the more remark- 
able because he was not one of the leaders in the 

236 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

class-room," said another officer, who had known 
Pershing at the academy. " It is a proof that it 
is character that counts, and that knowing 
doesn't signify until it gets over into being. 
You felt what he was by the way he held himself, 
with a dignity that was all power, never stiffness 
or pride. You could tell by the way he sat his 
horse that he would be master of himself and any 
situation in which he was placed. ' ' 

"His face was an index to the man," said still 
another member of his class. "You could read 
in the determined jaw, the clear-eyed, direct 
look, and the smile that always seemed just back 
of his keen glance, that he would be strict, but 
always fair — a truly human leader, never a ma- 
chine disciplinarian. ' ' 

It may have been necessary in order to satisfy 
this young man, who felt that the army in peace 
times was no place for one who had ambition to 
be up and doing, that he should have been singled 
out for the busiest posts and the hardest tasks 
in the service. With the exception of four years 
at Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was instructor in 
military science at the university, and one year as 
assistant professor of tactics at West Point, he 
was always in the field. Perhaps watchful Des- 

237 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

tiny, noticing that he was seizing the chance of- 
fered by his residence at the University of Ne- 
braska to realize his early ambition to study law, 
felt that even yet her general might succeed in 
giving her the slip if she failed to keep him busy 
enough. 

The second lieutenant, fresh from his success 
at West Point, was at once put to the test, and the 
actual training of the "Big Chief ' began in the 
Apache country of New Mexico. George Mac- 
Adam in his "Life of General Pershing' ' says: 

Physically, the country in winch Pershing got his first 
schooling as a regular Army officer is identical with the coun- 
try in which thirty years later he led that great man-hunt 
(for "Villa, dead or alive,") — the same baffling net-work of 
mountains, the same maze of seamed and rock-strewn canons, 
the same blistering stretches of alkali sands, the same broil- 
ing sun by day and nipping air by night, the same cruel 
scarcity of water, the same elusive trails. 

The Apache Indian is the unique product of a 
hard struggle with this unfriendly environment. 
Fleet of foot, he can run an astonishing distance 
over the alkali wastes or through the mountain 
trails without rest; thriving on hardship, he can 
subsist for days on field mice and the juice of the 
giant cactus; skilled in nature's camouflage, he 
can completely hide himself through a clever em- 

238 



"THE BIG CHIEF' ' 

ployment of grass, brush, and feathers; he was 
indeed an enemy to be reckoned with. When 
Lieutenant Pershing began his course in the new 
school of experience, his fellows had just emerged 
in triumph from the advanced problems pre- 
sented by the hunt for Geronimo, the fierce Apache 
chief who had been finally brought to bay in Sep- 
tember, 1886, by General Miles 's relentless pur- 
suit through New Mexico, Arizona, and north- 
ern Mexico with different detachments and com- 
mands for five months. And we read in the re- 
ports of General Miles that among the men 
trained to scouting and hard pursuit of marau- 
ders — white desperadoes as well as redskins — in 
that wild, lawless country, the newly-tried sec- 
ond lieutenant had won special mention. 

One citation may serve to illustrate the way 
in which his sterling dependability was winning 
recognition. He had brought in his troop, plus 
a pack train, from a record march of one hundred 
and forty miles in forty-six hours, earning hon- 
orable mention from General Miles, who made 
particular note of the fact that he had reported 
"with every man and animal in good condition.' ' 

The character that found expression in his 
faithfulness to every detail of his charge was felt 

239 



FIGHTEES FOR PEACE 

alike by the men in the ranks and the officers in 
command. One of the officers, who was Persh- 
ing's senior by six years of service among the 
Indians, said of him: "Of course one didn't 
ordinarily look to the striplings fresh in the 
field for suggestions and opinions. But there 
was something about Pershing that made him an 
exception. One found oneself turning to him in- 
stinctively with a "What do you think about it, 
Pershing!' And when he talked, people listened 
because he had a way of going to the meat of a 
question in a few words." 

One day word came of trouble on the Zuni Res- 
ervation. Some cowboys had been caught by 
the Indians driving off a number of their horses, 
and in the struggle that ensued three of the out- 
raged Zunis had been shot. The desperadoes 
had then taken refuge in a cabin, where they 
were besieged by the thoroughly aroused tribe. 
Colonel Carr, then in command of the Sixth Cav- 
alry at Fort Wingate, turned to Lieutenant 
Pershing in this emergency. 

"Of course they don't deserve help," he said 
grimly. "But it 's a case of putting out a fire 
instead of arguing about it." 

When the young officer arrived with ten of his 
240 










£ 





© Harris & Ewing 

GENERAL JOHN JOSEPH PERSHING 

Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

men at the scene of the trouble, he found a hun- 
dred and fifty of the incensed Zunis drawn up 
about the cabin, trying to decide on the particular 
form their vengeance should take. Pershing 
went up at once to the chief. His words were 
few, but effective, and the Indian, looking into his 
eyes, read something there that spoke without the 
need of an interpreter. 

"Will you trust me to bring out the men and 
take them away for trial?' ' he asked. "Will you 
take my word that justice shall be done?" 

The old chief, with his eyes still fixed pierc- 
ingly on the face of the tall, square- jawed young 
cavalryman, grunted his assent. Then Pershing 
forced open the door of the cabin, and faced the 
outlaws as if he did not even see the rifles that 
covered him. 

"You will give up your arms and come with 
me quietly," he said. "I will guarantee that the 
Indians do not touch you." There was a brief 
flourish and bluster of profane threats, but some- 
how the direct look of the young officer put them 
to silence and, perhaps, to shame. Sullenly they 
gave themselves up, because on second thought 
they could hardly defy their rescuer. And the 
second lieutenant who had settled the unpleas- 

241 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

ant affair without bloodshed was "highly com- 
mended for his discretion.' ' 

During seven years, while he was gaining ex- 
perience and winning golden opinions, Pershing 
served without any promotion in rank. In 1893 
he became first lieutenant of a troop of negro 
cavalry, and the nickname "Black Jack," getting 
by this chance fresh point, stuck to him through- 
out his career. When the war with Spain broke 
out, he was filling the position of instructor of 
tactics at West Point, but he immediately applied 
for his old command of the Tenth Cavalry, and 
his "black riders" earned an enviable reputa- 
tion at San Juan and at Santiago de Cuba. Gen- 
eral Baldwin, under whom Pershing served, said 
of him, "I have been in many fights through the 
Civil War, but Captain Pershing is the coolest 
man under fire that I ever saw in my life." He 
was recommended for brevet commissions "for 
personal gallantry, untiring energy, and faith- 
fulness," in the battle of El Cany winning his cap- 
taincy through distinguished valor in action. 

It was thought that his courage, coupled with 
the qualities of faithfulness and discretion, made 
Captain Pershing ideally adapted to meeting the 
problems that America had suddenly inherited 

242 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

with her island possessions in the Pacific. So he 
was assigned to the task of subduing the Moros, 
the fierce little Malay Mohammedans whose Vik- 
ing-like raids had long been the terror of the civ- 
ilized inhabitants of the Philippines. Now the 
United States undertook to cope with a situation 
that the Spaniards had never succeeded in han- 
dling. 

The last chapter of the Moro campaign was 
exceedingly dramatic. A band of Moros, en- 
trenched in the crater of an extinct volcano on the 
Island of Jolo, were defying every attempt to 
put an end to their forays. The people of the 
surrounding country were always in danger of 
an eruption of these fire-eating fanatics, who de- 
scended upon them without warning, breathing 
out threatenings and slaughter, for to them the 
plundering of infidels was always a "holy war." 

"Here is a new version of Mohammed and the 
mountain,' ' said Captain Pershing. "Because it 
does too much coming to us we must go to it, and 
after it. We must put that volcano out of busi- 
ness." 

Accordingly he set out through the jungles, 
fighting ambushed Moros every step of the way, 
until he came with his picked regulars to the 

243 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

foot of the mountain. Here they formed a cor- 
don and cleverly fortified against attack from 
above, waited for the besieged Malays to come 
out. Again and again some daring ones, who 
tried to rush through the relentless cordon to 
the shelter of the jungle, ran to their death. 
Then on Christmas day, 1911, four hundred of 
the fierce, little brown fighters marched in a tra- 
gic procession down the mountainside and sur- 
rendered. 

The final and decisive triumph came in June, 
1913, at the battle of Bagsag, where the fanatics 
were gathered for a last stand, in the name of 
their prophet, against the Christian usurpers 
from far-away America. After that their subju- 
gation was complete, for Pershing's peaceful vic- 
tories were as remarkable as his successes in the 
field. He learned the language of the Moros, and 
tried painstakingly to get their point of view. 
His kindness and absolute fairness at last bore 
fruit, and his work as an administrator was a 
signal success. The Sultan of Oato even offered 
to bestow upon him his young son as a convinc- 
ing token of his regard, at the same time confer- 
ring on him the full rights of hereditary ruler of 
the Moros, with the added authority of a Moham- 

244 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

medan judge — an honor never before entrusted 
to one of an alien religion. 

As early as 1903 his brilliant successes in the 
Philippine campaigns and his marked qualities 
of leadership moved General Davis to write at 
length to Washington, recommending that he be 
made brigadier-general, for under the existing 
regulations there was no way of passing him 
over the heads of senior captains to a colonelcy. 
In that same year the distinction came to him of 
special mention in President Koosevelt's annual 
message to Congress, where, in asking that a law 
be passed making a reasonable promotion for dis- 
tinguished ability possible, the President said: 
"When a man renders such service as Captain 
Pershing rendered last spring in the Moro cam- 
paign, it ought to be possible to reward him with- 
out at once jumping him to the grade of brigadier- 
general. ' ' 

For three years President Koosevelt waited for 
Congress to take this action, and then, taking the 
bull by the horns, he made him a brigadier-gen- 
eral over 862 officers of senior grade, the most 
spectacular jump ever recorded in the annals of 
the army. 

It was openly said — and the bitterness of the 
245 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

slander all but poisoned the new general's happy 
triumph — that he had won the promotion through 
the influence of his father-in-law, Senator "War- 
ren of Wyoming, who was at that time a member 
of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. 
But in 1903 when President Roosevelt made his 
recommendation to Congress, Pershing had not 
even met Miss Frances Warren, who was des- 
tined to become his wife. It is said, however, 
that she was sitting in the gallery when the Pres- 
ident's message was read, and that she re- 
marked to a companion, "I should really like to 
see the captain who has been able to win such 
a commendation." 

It was not long before Miss Warren had her 
wish. He came, she saw, and he conquered! 
Most opportunely, it seemed to them then, he re- 
ceived the appointment of military attache to 
Japan. Tokio would be an ideal place for a 
honeymoon; and if hard work could ever lay 
claim to a holiday, surely Captain Pershing was 
entitled to one now. But hardly had they 
reached the Land of the Cherry Blossom before 
the bridegroom was ordered to Manchuria as 
military observer of the battles between little 
Nippon and the Russian bear. And the report 

246 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

he forwarded to the War Department, it may be 
mentioned, was considered one of the most clear- 
cut and valuable documents of the sort ever sent 
in from the field. 

The only way that Pershing could clear him- 
self of the imputation of having won his pro- 
motion through favoritism was by seeking more 
and harder tasks. Back in the Philippines 
again, he brought, as we have seen, the Moro 
campaign to a successful conclusion in 1913, and 
served as commander of the Department of Min- 
danao and governor of the Moro Province. In 
December, 1913, Major-General Bell wrote in his 
report to Congress: "I know of nothing con- 
nected with the service of General Pershing and 
the army in Mindanao during the past three years 
which merits anything but praise. ' ' 

In the summer of 1915 General Pershing was 
sent to the Mexican border. And now it seemed 
as if fate was putting both the man and the sol- 
dier to the supreme test. Was the experience of 
the years all available in power to meet the prob- 
lems of existence? Could he face grief and de- 
feat unshaken! In August, when the com- 
mander went to El Paso, he left his wife and chil- 
dren at the Presidio in San Francisco, while he was 

247 



FIGHTEBS FOR PEACE 

looking for suitable quarters for them in Texas. 
Then in a moment came the tragedy. A fire, 
which swept the military post near the Golden 
Gate, carried away Mrs. Pershing and their 
three daughters, all the family except the little 
son, Warren, whom the servants had succeeded 
in rescuing from the flames. 

Would the Big Chief, as the men affection- 
ately called the general, be able to meet this or- 
deal? "He met it like a soldier,' ' wrote a young 
officer in a letter home. "I find myself thinking 
as I see him going about, unbowed, unconquer- 
able, of the picture Walt Whitman drew of a 
soldier-soul, victorious in defeat. 

'Yet mid the ruins Pride Colossal stands unshaken to the last, 
Endurance, resolution to the last.' " 

The soul of the general, who naturally longed 
to push his campaign through to definite success, 
was also sorely tried by the restraining orders 
from Washington. For months he had to remain 
virtually inactive, carrying out the policy of 
"watchful waiting' ' while keeping his powder dry 
and his lines of communication intact. Perhaps 
the way in which he stood this test without impa- 
tience, complaint, or criticism, showed his finely 

248 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

tempered strength even better than his coolness in 
action. The general waited for orders from his 
commander-in-chief with the completely disci- 
plined will of the true soldier. 

When President Wilson, from among all the 
American commanders, chose General Pershing to 
lead the United States troops in the World War, 
he must have weighed carefully and prayerfully all 
the qualities of the man. American manhood was 
to be tried as never before. What a task it was to 
take the untrained boys of our free, peaceful, and 
prosperous republic and make them into a dis- 
ciplined army nerved to endure the hardships and 
the horrors of the most terrible of all wars! 
What a responsibility to plan wisely when so 
many precious lives were at stake! 

The way in which General Pershing took up 
his work of planning, providing, and organizing, 
and at once found his place as part of the great 
army of freedom proved the measure of the man. 

"I shall never forget,' ' said General Foch, 
"that tragic day in March when, stirred by a gen- 
erous impulse, you came and placed at my dis- 
position the entire resources of your army. The 
success won in the hard fighting by the American 
troops is the consequence of the excellent con- 

249 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

ception, command, and organization of the Amer- 
ican general staff and the will to win of the Amer- 
ican soldiers/ ' 

"You have come, God bless you!" said Mar- 
shal Joffre, in welcoming General Pershing, who 
had just stepped from the special train that 
brought him to Paris. A man, standing near, 
said: "I never want to see anything finer than 
the meeting of those two. Both hands of each 
went out to the other. Then they stood a min- 
ute, face to face, perfect understanding without 
the need of words." 

A French captain on duty in America tried 
to explain what the coming of Pershing's troops 
to the firing-line had meant: 

"Your general — he seems to us the type of 
your strong, straight, fearless country," he said. 
"When we got to know your men we saw that 
they all had the same spirit. Can you under- 
stand how we watched to see how the Americans 
would go over the top — how they would hold out 
under fire ? We could not believe that such free, 
happy boys, who had not been trained to war, 
could stand the terrible test of battle as it is to- 
day. The Germans had said, 'The Americans 
cannot fight; they have money — that is all 

250 



"THE BIG CHIEF" 

They can send food and munitions, which we can 
send to the bottom on the way over. Americans 
are all for peace and profit; they will never 
fight !'" 

Then he went on to describe the way in which 
the United States troops were placed for their 
first trial between seasoned Tommies and poilus, 
who, it was hoped, would manage to carry them 
through. 

"I was there!" finished the captain, dramat- 
ically. "For once we were thinking of some- 
thing besides Fritz and his tricks. We were 
watching the Americans under fire for the first 
time. And we found out they could fight! Our 
men did not have to lead the way; no, it was all 
that they could do to hold the Sammies back 
when the moment came for a pause and a new 
start. They were fine, gallant lads — so gay and 
so brave! We looked at each other, we French, 
and said, 'Well, America 's in!' " 

One likes to picture the great moment when 
Pershing stood before the tomb of Lafayette. 
Stepping forward to place a wreath there he 
spoke only these words, "Lafayette, we are here !" 
That was all there was to say for his American 
troops ; for the rest they would prove themselves 

251 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

in action. And how they proved themselves at 
Chateau-Thierry, at Saint Mihiel, at the Meuse 
and at Verdun, history must tell the story. 

"An important part of our victory,' ' said Gen- 
eral Foch, "is due to the action undertaken and 
well carried through by the American army upon 
the two banks of the Meuse. For the last two 
months the Americans have fought in a most dif- 
ficult region a fierce and ceaseless battle. The 
complete triumph of this struggle is due to the 
fine qualities displayed by all. The name ' Meuse' 
may be inscribed proudly upon the American 
flag." 

When General Pershing spoke of his soldiers 
it was not so much their achievements as their 
character that moved him. 

"What we have done must speak for itself," 
he said, "but when I think of the behavior of our 
men fighting here in a foreign land; of the disci- 
plined cheerfulness with which they have faced 
discomforts; of the determination with which 
they have confronted difficulties ; and of the splen- 
did dash with which they have met the enemy, 
first in trench warfare and then in open battle — 
I cannot speak what is in my mind, because my 

252 



"THE BIG CHIEF' ■ 

emotions of gratitude are so great they keep 
me from speaking of these things.' ' 

Like general, like men. It is good to think 
that the Commander of the American Expedi- 
tionary Forces seemed to the Allies the perfect 
type of the American soldier. It is also good to 
think that it was because the men in the trenches, 
no less than the Big Chief, proved themselves in 
terms of character — by their 

"clear-grained human worth 
And brave old wisdom of sincerity." 

Thanksgiving Day, 1918, was a memorable oc- 
casion with the American Army in France. 
From the vantage-ground of victory all looked 
back in thankfulness that they had passed 
through the fiery trials of the past months of bat- 
tle, and all looked forward in confidence to a bet- 
ter order as the result of their devotion and sac- 
rifice. It seemed as if General Pershing was in- 
spired to voice in that moment something of the 
inarticulate longing of all hearts. 

One of those present recalled the words of a 
Frenchwoman with whom the general was quar- 
tered for a short time in one of the little towns, 

253 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

"He look like ze statue carve out of stone, but 
he speak to me like a good neighbor who live 
long next door." 

He stood there facing his troops, the ideal sol- 
dier figure, lithe, erect, indomitable. His face 
bore its usual expression of serene strength ; but if 
one could not read his emotion there, all none the 
less surely felt it. 

"May we give thanks that unselfish service has 
given us new vision, ' ' he said in conclusion, ' ' that 
we are able to return to our firesides and our 
country with higher aims and a firmer purpose. 
. . . Our nation awaits the return of its sol- 
diers, believing in the stability of character that 
has come from self-discipline and self-sacrifice. 
Confident of the new power that the stern school 
of war and discipline has brought to each of us, 
American mothers await with loving hearts their 
gallant sons. Great cause have we to thank God 
for trials successfully met and victories won. 
Still more should we thank Him for the golden 
future with its wealth of opportunity and its 
hope of a permanent universal peace." 



254 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 
ADMIRAL BEATTT 



"Over the warring waters, beneath the wandering skies, 
The heart of Britain roameth, the Chivalry of the sea, 
Where Spring never bringeth a flower, nor bird singeth in a 

tree; 
Far, afar, beloved, beyond the sight of our eyes, 
Over the warring waters, beneath the stormy skies/' 

Robert Bridges. 



THE CHIVALEY OF THE SEA 

Have you seen the something in the eyes of a 
man who looks much upon the sea and who loves 
with all his being 

"His sea in no wonder the same — his sea and the same 
through each wonder: 
His sea as she rages or stills — " 

that is akin to the unfathomed deep? He is per- 
haps only a rough, unlettered seaman, but in his 
brooding face you feel the wisdom and patience 
of one who has known the power of eternal things. 
Have you felt the something of mystery, of 
haunting charm, and of strength in the soul of a 
great nation that loves the sea? England and 
her mighty sea-lover — the romance of it! Eng- 
land, the patient sea-wife, sending her sons 
across the waves to strike root in new lands — 
the home-making power of it! One cannot 
rightly understand what great fleets and the 
chivalry of the sea may mean until he feels that 
the passionate love for the ocean that surrounds 
her isle is the very heart of England. 

257 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

A fleet is not built in a day or in a year and a 
day. The patience of centuries must season and 
temper it. They tell us that Alfred the Great 
was the founder of the Royal Navy. Just as he 
saw that the warring factions within the nation 
needed the guiding hand of a strong leader, so 
he also realized that the sea wall that separated 
their country from foes abroad could not be 
trusted unless it was manned by a fleet of guard- 
ian ships under the King's control. The English 
had always been a sea-faring people; adventure 
upon the waves was their life. King Alfred but 
chose and strengthened for the nation's defense 
some of the hearts of oak that had already known 
the sea. The navy, then, was a selected, per- 
fected part of England's ships, all of which might 
be counted to rally at the country's call in time of 
need. When Spain put forth all her proud 
strength in the Invincible Armada to humble 
England, the Royal Navy comprised only twen- 
ty-eight ships. The sole advantage that the 
English possessed lay in the skill and courage of 
the seamen who were used to riding upon stormy 
seas and braving the wrath of winds and waves. 
All the towns of the realm who were called upon 

258 



THE CHIVALEY OF THE SEA 

to provide ships to reinforce the navy came loy- 
ally to the defense of their land. London town 
when asked for fifteen sails sent double that num- 
ber; and the nobles provided in addition some 
forty-three ships at their own expense. Indeed 
it seemed that, from Lord Howard, admiral of 
the navy, to the humblest fisherman along shore, 
all England was putting forth her strength on the 
sea she knew and trusted. 

We know how the daring of Sir Francis Drake 
and his gallant rovers, aided by tempest and 
storm-lashed waves, defeated the mighty Ar- 
mada. Surely England's sea and England's 
sons might be counted on always to rise up to- 
gether against all threatening foes. Devonshire 
men, especially, cherished the memory of Drake 
and his drum, which, when dying in a distant land, 
he sent to be hung on the sea wall at home. And 
they say that in time of danger a staunch British 
hand needs but to strike that drum to call the 
spirit of Drake and the souls of all true men that 
have ever loved and fought for England to her 
rescue. It was Drake's spirit that guided Nel- 
son, they said, to his victory at Trafalgar; and 
Drake's spirit was still alive in the Admiral of 

259 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

the Grand Fleet that held the gates of the North 
Sea against the dreadnoughts and destroyers of 
Germany. 

Do you know the chantey of the Devonshire- 
men? It rings with the spirit of daring, sea-far- 
ing hearts of oak that know but one service, that 
of the sea-swept isle, and but one standard, "Eng- 
land expects every man to do his duty." 

"Drake he 's in his hammock till the great Armadas come, 
(Capten, art tha sleepin 1 ' there below?) 
Slung atween the round shot, listenin' for the drum, 

An' dreamin' arl the time o' Plymouth Hoe. 
Call him on the deep sea, call him up the Sound, 

Call him when ye sail to meet the foe; 
Where the old trade 's plyin' an' the old flag flying 

They shall find him ware an' wakin', as they found him 
long ago V 

Let us see how the unconquerable spirit of the 
past that "starts from every wave" has wrought 
and fought for England on the seas in the Great 
War. First of all there was the Grand Fleet, 
England's mightiest and swiftest men-of-war 
with their attendant cruisers, destroyers, and 
submarines. This was gathered in the North 
Sea to challenge the German Over Seas Fleet at 
the moment it made the attempt to leave its for- 
tified, land-locked harbors. How well it did its 

260 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

work is shown by the successful "containing" of 
the super-dreadnoughts and destroyers of the 
second navy in the world during the entire period 
of the war, so that at the end they were obliged 
to give themselves up, untried, unscarred, un- 
honored — idle, impotent giants. 

"If they were Yankee ships you had been try- 
ing to bottle up, I dare swear that some of our 
raiders would have slipped by," boasted an Am- 
erican ensign. "You can't tell me that you could 
have kept the three hundred miles of dark, fog- 
wrapt, or stormy sea between Scotland and Nor- 
way every night for three and a half years so that 
we wouldn't have been able to have things our 
way now and again." 

The British bluejacket grinned with friendly 
tolerance. "We keep on the job, sir," he said 
with modest brevity. 

The American looked at the lean, weathered 
face of the old sea-dog with keen, admiring ap- 
preciation. "I guess you Ve been in a pretty 
good school," he said, as he recalled how an officer 
on one of the destroyers of the Grand Fleet had 
described the hardships of cruising at top speed 
through the short, choppy waves of the North 
Sea: 

261 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

"We never steam less than twenty knots," he 
had said, "and you can picture what that means 
when there is even a small sea running. Choked 
with oil-fuel smoke, slashed with icy spray, soaked 
to the skin, freezing, and utterly miserable, the 
spirit of our men is simply beyond all praise." 

In the long winter nights when the haze veiled 
friends and foes alike in a wet grayness, dark 
patches moving through the mist were challenged 
by every sense and every instinct at highest pitch 
of alertness. This is the way an engagement 
with some German light cruisers who attempted 
to "cut some capers" in the North Sea was de- 
scribed by an eye-witness: "When the range 
reached the 2,000 yards mark the forward six- 
inch gun of the British cruiser spoke, a short, 
sharp crack that hurt the ears, followed by the 
duller boom of the bursting of shell. It was the 
fitting beginning for the inferno of noise that im- 
mediately followed. It was a fight in the dark, 
where no man could see how his brother fared 
and when it was only just possible to make out 
the opposing gray shadow, and hammer, hammer, 
hammer at it till the eyes ached and smarted, and 
the breath whistled through lips parched with 
the acrid, stifling fumes of picric acid." 

262 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

The raids attempted early in the war on the 
north-east coast of England by some detached and 
too-daring swift cruisers were so severely pun- 
ished that before long all Germany's fierce sea- 
dogs of war were " contained " in their harbor- 
kennels. Two such sallies made by fleet, furtive 
cruisers, which scattered mines, and fired at long 
range through screening fog upon unprotected 
coast towns, without any excuse of military ad- 
vantage, slaughtering women and children and 
wrecking houses and churches before they scut- 
tled ignominiously back to the shelter of their 
port, were considered triumphs of "f rightful- 
ness"; but the third proved so costly that only 
minor excursions of smaller craft were after- 
wards attempted. When Admiral Beatty's pa- 
trolling fleet sighted on January 24, 1915, a 
squadron of cruisers and destroyers about thirty 
miles from the English coast, there was such 
swift pursuit and punishment as left little doubt 
that Britannia still ruled the waves. 

"On land we can beat you, but here, no," said 
one of the miserable survivors of the Blucher, a 
15,000-ton ship that did not succeed in getting 
her wounded hulk to the shelter of the shore guns, 
as did some of the more fortunate raiders. The 

263 



FIGHTEKS FOR PEACE 

following extract from the account of one of the 
German officers rescued from the Blilcher gives 
a lurid picture of warfare at sea under modern 
conditions : 

The shells came thick and fast, with a horrible droning 
hum. At once they did terrible execution. The electric plant 
was soon destroyed, and the ship plunged in a darkness that 
could be felt. "You could not see your hand before your 
nose," said one. Down below decks there was horror and con- 
fusion, mingled with gasping shouts and moans, as the shells 
plunged through the decks. It was only later, when the range 
shortened, that they tore holes in the ship's sides and raked 
her decks. At first they came dropping from the skies. They 
penetrated the decks. They bored their way even to the 
stokehold. The coal in the bunkers was set on fire. Since 
the bunkers were half empty, the fire burned merrily. In the 
engine-room a shell licked up the oil and sprayed it around in 
flames of blue and green, scarring its victims and blazing 
where it fell. Men huddled together in dark compartments, 
but the shells sought them out, and there death had a rich 
harvest. 

The terrific air-pressure resulting from explosion in a con- 
fined space, left a deep impression on the minds of the men. 
The air, it would seem, roars through every opening and 
tears its way through every weak spot. All loose and inse- 
cure fittings are transformed into moving instruments of de- 
struction. Open doors bang to and jamb, and closed iron doors 
bend outward like tinplates, and through it all the bodies of 
men are whirled about like dead leaves in a winter blast. . . . 
If it was appalling below deck, it was more appalling above. 
"It was one continuous explosion," said a gunner. The ship 
heeled over as the broadsides struck her, then righted herself, 
rocking like a cradle. Gun crews were so destroyed that 

264 



THE CHIVALEY OF THE SEA 

stokers had to be requisitioned to carry ammunition. Men 
lay flat for safety. The decks presented a tangled mass of 
scrap iron. 

For the entire period of the war the vaunted 
High Seas Fleet remained paralyzed in canals 
and harbors. Only once did it venture out for a 
trial of strength. On the afternoon of May 31, 
1916, a large body of German war-cruisers and 
destroyers appeared beyond the shore defenses, 
to offer battle in open sea to Admiral Beatty's 
squadron of cruisers, hoping to lure it away from 
the rest of the Grand Fleet, perhaps to its de- 
struction in the mine-strewn waters within range 
of the mighty guns from the shore. First, the 
Germans sent out their battle-cruisers and a num- 
ber of submarines, by whose activities they hoped 
to so confuse and perplex the advance guard of 
the Grand Fleet that even if it did not venture 
within the fatal area of mines, the whole German 
fleet would have chance to appear in force and 
annihilate it before rescue could come from the 
battle-ships under Jellicoe. 

A strange, unearthly conflict it was, between 
vessels lurking in haze and smoke-screens at ex- 
treme range to escape torpedoes and, while run- 
ning at top speed, striking out at each other in 

265 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

darkness or in sudden flashes of light through 
the smoke-charged mist. Destroyers dashed 
back and forth, now charging, now withdrawing. 
Now and then lurid flares of licking flames out- 
lined for a few minutes the looming form of one 
of the ghostly combatants mast high, before the 
mist once more swallowed it up. 

"I never expect to know a more thrilling mo- 
ment," said one of the officers of the Grand 
Fleet, "than that when our far-flung battle-line 
took shape — miles of it shrouded in mist — as our 
ships found themselves with drill-like precision, 
and began belching out sheets of flame and clouds 
of smoke.' ' 

So it was that the Battle of Jutland proceeded, 
and but for adverse weather conditions that 
brought shrouding darkness early that May eve- 
ning, Admiral Jellicoe might have succeeded in 
annihilating the German fleet. 

As it was, proceeding with the greatest care, 
since it was difficult to distinguish between 
his own ships and those of the enemy, he saw 
the prize melt away in the heavy North Sea 
haze and veiling smoke-screens. Then under 
the pall of darkness the shattered and crip- 
pled German vessels picked their way through 

266 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

their mine fields to the haven of their guarded 
ports. 

"If only we had not been so unlucky in the 
weather !" said one of the British officers, rue- 
fully. "But in that case perhaps there would 
have been no Battle of Jutland, because it 's a 
safe guess that the Huns would never have put 
out." 

At first the Germans loudly proclaimed a tri- 
umph over the Grand Fleet ; but afterwards, when 
they could show no fruits of victory in freedom 
from the blockade, when month after month their 
ships remained sealed up in their harbors, the 
self-evident facts silenced their boasts. As one 
neutral newspaper put it: "It would seem that 
the Germans might think it rather absurd to hail 
their Kaiser as "Admiral of the Atlantic" before 
he has a single ship afloat there. The German 
Navy is undoubtedly still a navy in jail. It may 
assault its keeper now and then with great fury, 
but it remains in jail, nevertheless." 

After the Battle of Jutland the admiral of the 
fleet was made First Sea Lord of the Admiralty. 
This put him in control of the policy and the 
strategy of all the British naval operations ev- 
erywhere. Some one has said of Sir John Jel- 

267 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

licoe that he has the "candor of the sea," the 
large freedom of men who are used to wide 
spaces, and days and nights alone on the restless 
waters under the eternal sky. 

"He has the spirit of Sir Francis Drake !" 
whispered the seamen. 

"Not so," said a young officer, who knew the 
tales of Devonshire and a few of the fancies of 
the poets, "Drake's man is the other, the younger 
one, with the flashing eyes and 'the soul like a 
North Sea storm '." 

That was Sir David Beatty, who had com- 
manded the cruiser squadron at the Battle of Jut- 
land, and who succeeded Jellicoe as Admiral. 
After that engagement he wrote in a letter, "We 
will be ready for them next time. Please God it 
will come soon." At the same time the com- 
mander-in-chief was writing of him, "Sir David 
Beatty showed all his fine qualities of gallant 
leadership, firm determination, and correct strat- 
egical insight.' ' 

"Yes," said an American officer, "I was one 
of those who had the privilege of serving during 
the last year of the war under Admiral Beatty, 
and one may well say in the fashion of your poet, 

268 



THE CHIVALEY OF THE SEA 

Noyes, that he had the power and sweep 'of a 
North Sea storm,' but he also had at the same 
time the large wisdom of a Foch in his grasp of 
all of the many moves in the complex game he 
played, and in his masterly strategy." 

But the ships of the Grand Fleet were the aris- 
tocrats, the powerful chieftains of England's 
mariner hosts. What of the humble cargo boats, 
the trawlers, the rank and file of those from yacht 
to fishing-smack who held the net of the blockade 
from Ireland to the Mediterranean? For, as in 
the days of Elizabeth and the Armada, when the 
Eoyal Navy was supplemented by the boats of 
the people, so now all the men and all the ships 
of this great seafaring nation had rallied to the 
service of their country. How the lines of Kip- 
ling made one feel the pathos and the glory of 
these storm-tossed tramp boats ! 

"In Lowestoft a boat was laid, 
Mark well what I do say! 
And she was built for the herring trade, 
But she has gone a-rovin', a-rovin/ a-rovin', 
The Lord knows where! 

They gave her Government coal to burn, 
And a Q. F. gun at bow and stern, 
And sent her out a-rovin', etc. 

269 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

Her skipper was mate of a bucko ship, 
Which always killed one man per trip, 
So he is used to roving etc. 



Her cook was chef of the Lost Dogs' Home, 

Mark well what I do say ! 
And I 'm sorry for Fritz when they all come 

A-rovin', a-rovin', a-roarin' and a-rovin', 

Round the North Sea rovin', 

The Lord knows where!" 

It was a game with grim rules and lonely vig- 
ils, the keeping of the blockade. For a month or 
more at a time each boat held its watch, weaving 
in and out through fog and gale, not knowing at 
what moment a mine or the torpedo of a subma- 
rine might put a sudden end to its service. 

"Out at sea and working on deck for at least 
twenty hours," said a fisherman, "wet through 
to the skin, then below for two hours' sleep. 
Then come on deck for another twenty hours, and 
keep on doing that for a month, Blow high, blow 
low, rain, hail, or snow, mines or submarines, we 
have to go through it." 

"We have just crawled into port again/ ' wrote 
a skipper; "what weather it has been — nothing 
but gales, rain, and snow, with rough seas. The 
strictest look-out must be kept at all times, as, 

270 



THE CHIVALRY OP THE SEA 

with the rough seas that are going now, a subma- 
rine's periscope takes a bit of spotting, likewise 
a floating mine. The watchers hang on to the 
rigging in blinding rain, with seas drenching over 
them for four hours at a time, peering into the 
darkness/ ' 

And as for the trawlers: "See that wire 
rope?" said Kipling's "common sweeper." 
"Well, it leads through that lead to the ship 
which you 're sweepin' with. She makes her end 
fast and you make yourn. Then you sweep to- 
gether at whichever depth you We agreed upon 
between you by means of that arrangement there 
which regulates the depth. They give you a glass 
sort o' thing for keepin' your distance from the 
other ship, but that 's not wanted if you know 
each other. Well, then, you sweep, as the savin' 
is. There 's nothin' in it. You sweep till this 
wire rope fouls the bloomin' mines. Then you 
go on till they appear at the surface, so to say, 
and then you explodes them by means of shootin' 
at 'em with that rifle in the galley there. There 's 
nothin' in sweepin' more than that." 

' ' And if you hit a mine ? " he was asked. 

"You go up — but you hadn't ought to hit 'em, 
if you 're careful. The thing is to get hold of 

271 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

the first mine all right, and then you go on to the 
next, and so on, in a way o' speakin." 

"And you can fish, too, 'tween times,' ' put in 
a voice from the next boat. Mr. Kipling's de- 
scription in "The Fringes of the Fleet" makes 
one feel that all the Mark Tapleys of the United 
Kingdom had taken to trawling. But after read- 
ing about the men on patrol duty manning the de- 
stroyers that will "neither rise up and fly clear 
like the hydroplanes, nor dive and be done with 
it like the submarines, but imitate the vices of 
both," you think there is even some surplus op- 
timism on duty there : 

"Where the East wind is brewed fresh and fresh every morn- 
ing, 
And the balmy night-breezes blow straight from the Pole, 
I heard a destroyer sing: "What an enjoyable life does one 
lead on the North Sea Patrol! 

We warn from disaster the mercantile master 
Who takes in high dudgeon our life-saving role, 
For every one's grousing at docking and dowsing 
The marks and the lights on the North Sea Patrol." 

What epic adventures filled the days and nights 
of the mariners of England, whose task it was to 
bridge the seas for the ships carrying coal and 
iron to France and Italy, food and munitions to 

272 




© Underwood & Underwood 

ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY 

Commander of the Grand Fleet of the British Navy 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

all of the Allies, troops from Canada, India, Aus- 
tralia, and America to the battle-line in France, 
besides armies and supplies to other scenes of ac- 
tion, Gallipoli, Greece, Suez, Palestine, Mesopo- 
tamia. Had it not been for the mastery of the 
seas, the Germans must have become masters of 
the world. 

"May not the great might of England's navy 
become a menace to the freedom of other nations 
and the peace of the world V J it is sometimes 
asked. "May not the navalism of Great Britain 
prove as much a threat as the militarism of Ger- 
many f" 

Let the facts of the case make reply. As the 
people of England are what they are by virtue of 
their intimate association with the sea, so the 
government of Great Britain, the most complete 
democracy in the world, may be said to be the 
outgrowth of her sea-power. The sea breathes 
the spirit of freedom; seapower makes for de- 
fense and independence, not aggression. Only 
when it might be used as an adjunct to a powerful 
army could it become a threat to the liberty of 
other peoples. 

America certainly owes much to the seapower 
of Britain. Admiral Mahan, in an article which 

273 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

appeared in the ' ' Scientific American, ' ' stated the 
matter very clearly : 

"Why do English innate political conceptions 
of popular representative government, of the bal- 
ance of law and liberty, prevail in North America 
from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific? Because the com- 
mand of the sea at the decisive era belonged to 
Great Britain." 

Turning now to the testimony of the Norwe- 
gian, Nils Sten, we read : 

"I have traveled by German steamers nearly 
all over the world, but never heard (until August, 
1914) a German officer complain of England's 
naval supremacy . . . For the last 100 years Nor- 
way has been England's greatest competitor on 
the sea. When has Norway had reason to com- 
plain of England's jealousy or English supremacy? 
In all the harbors of the world the Norwegian and 
the English flag have been hoisted side by side. . . 
Hundreds of thousands of times Norwegian boats 
have been lying within range of English guns. 
Have they felt this as danger? No, on the con- 
trary, they have felt it as a guarantee for just 
and noble treatment!" 

If one wants to read something of the practical 
274 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

chivalry of the sea during the Great War, he has 
but to go to records such as those quoted by Pro- 
fessor Dixon in his delightfully clear and vivid 
little book, "The British Navy at War." "A 
single lieutenant of the Naval Reserve," he says, 
"besides attending to other matters, destroyed 
forty or Mtj mines, twice drove off an inquisitive 
German Taube, attacked an equally inquisitive 
Zeppelin, twice rescued a British sea-plane, and 
towed it into safety, rescued in June the crew of 
a torpedoed trawler, sixteen men, also the crew 
of a sunk fishing- vessel ; in July assisted two 
steamers that had been mined, saving twenty-four 
of the sailors, in September assisted another 
steamer, rescued three men from a mined trawler, 
towed a disabled Dutch steamer, and assisted in 
rescuing the passengers ; in November assisted a 
Norwegian steamer, rescued twenty-four men, 
and also a Greek steamer, which had been torpe- 
doed, and rescued forty." 

The love of fair play, which is an instinct with 
all true men of the sea, made the submarine par- 
ticularly detested. "All the crew swallowed 
up in a minute," said a skipper in telling of the 
time when a torpedo hit one of his fellow-fishing- 
smacks. ' ' They don 't give you a chance to strike 

275 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

out for your life or to know even that you 've 
been done for in a fair fight." 

Therefore the decoy work of the " Q ' ' boats, as 
they were called, was pursued with enthusiasm 
despite, perhaps because of, its great risks. The 
story of His Majesty's ship Par gust, which,- dis- 
guised as a merchant vessel, succeeded in luring 
to its destruction an enemy submarine on June 
7, 1917, may serve to illustrate the manner in 
which the "play-acting" crews of the "Q" boats 
worked. After the ship had been attacked by the 
submarine, a portion of the men, playing the role 
of "panic party" or sole survivors, put forth in 
a life-boat and, acting in this way as lure, led the 
submarine within fifty yards of the ship, which 
then unmasked and opened fire. The submarine, 
with oil pouring from her side and the crew 
pouring from the conning-tower, seemed in a 
desperate case. At first the crew held up their 
hands in surrender, but when the fire from the 
Pargust ceased, they apparently rallied and 
made an attempt to escape under cover of the 
heavy mist. Fire was reopened then until she 
sank, only one officer and one man of the crew 
being rescued. American destroyers and a Brit- 
ish sloop appeared on the scene shortly after- 

276 



THE CHIVALEY OF THE SEA 

ward, and the decoy ship was towed in triumph 
to port. "As on previous occasions,' ' it was 
stated, "officers and men displayed the utmost 
courage and confidence in their captain, and the 
action serves as an example of what perfect dis- 
cipline, when coupled with such confidence, can 
achieve.' ' One officer and one man from among 
them was selected by ballot for the award of the 
Victoria Cross. 

But perhaps of all the gallant attempts to wrest 
the weapon of the submarine from the ruthless 
hand of the enemy the raid on Zeebrugge was the 
most daring. Ever since this Belgian port had 
been captured by the Germans in the autumn of 
1914 it had been used as a base for submarines, 
destroyers, and aircraft. It was so situated that 
swift instruments of death could be thrust from 
their sheltered harborage and back again before 
the watchers of the sea had time to deal with 
them. 

"If we could only destroy that scorpions' 
nest!" it was said. But how was it to be accom- 
plished? The port was provided with heavy 
guns past all possibility of attack ; no ships could 
approach under their raking fire. Moreover, it 
had the added defense of a crescent-shaped mole 

277 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

thirty feet high, which held the entire harbor 
within its fortified curve. 

Yet there are no bounds to what men of the 
sea will dare in a great cause. * * There is a way 
to destroy that harbor if we can block the chan- 
nel by sinking some ships in just the right posi- 
tion,'' some one suggested. Plans were pre- 
sented and discussed. 

"It is possible," declared the commander. 
"The risk is great, but the object to be attained 
is greater. Given a dark night, with the sea and 
the wind favoring us, a storming party may reach 
the mole in a smoke screen without being ob- 
served. Then, effecting a landing, they may suc- 
ceed in so engaging the attention of the enemy 
that block ships — three old cruisers filled with 
concrete — may be taken to the harbor and sunk 
there so as to completely fill the channel. ' ' 

It was, as the German papers said in comment- 
ing on it afterward, a "fantastically audacious' ' 
scheme. But the chivalry of the sea does not 
count the cost when the call comes. 

On the night of April 22, 1918, all conditions 
seemed as favorable as possible. Four anti- 
quated British cruisers were chosen for the glo- 
rious attempt. Three of them were filled with con- 

278 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

crete, and one, the Vindictive, working with two 
ferry-boats, Daffodil and Iris, was to land the 
storming party on the mole to surprise the enemy, 
and, if possible, destroy the guns, submarine de- 
pots, and sea-plane bases there while diverting at- 
tention from the main effort, the sinking of the 
block ships. Even the official report of the raid 
glows and tingles. Here is the Admiralty ac- 
count of the approach of the storming party : 

The night was overcast and there was a drifting haze. 
Down the coast a great searchlight swung its beam to and 
fro in the small wind and short sea. From the Vindictive's 
bridge, as she headed in towards the mole, with the faithful 
ferry-boats at her heels, there was scarcely a glimmer of 
light to be seen shoreward. Ahead, as she drove through the 
water, rolled the smoke screen, her cloak of invisibility, 
wrapped about her by small craft. This was the device of 
Wing-Commander Brock, without which, acknowledges the 
admiral in command, the operation could not have been con- 
ducted. 

A northeast wind moved the volume of it shoreward ahead 
of the ships. Beyond it was the distant town, its defenders 
unsuspicious. It was not until the Vindictive, with blue- 
jackets and marines standing ready for landing, was close 
upon the mole that the wind lulled and came away again from 
the southeast, sweeping back the smoke screen and laying her 
bare to the eyes that looked seaward. 

There was a moment immediately afterward when it seemed 
to those on the ships as if the dim, coast-hidden harbor ex- 
ploded into light. A star shell soared aloft, then a score of 
star shells. The wavering beams of the searchlights swung 

279 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

around and settled into a glare. A wild fire of gun flashes 
leaped against the sky, strings of luminous green beads shot 
aloft, hung, and sank. The darkness of the night was sup- 
plemented by a nightmare of daylight of battle-fired guns 
and machine-guns along the mole. The batteries ashore awoke 
to life. 

As we read of the landing where the men swept 
on through the terrific fire of the German machine- 
guns while the wounded and dying raised them- 
selves to cheer on their comrades, we know that 
there are indeed no limits to human heroism. 

It is a significant fact that, as the bombing 
parties went on with their task of destroying the 
machine-gun emplacements, fortifications, and 
other military equipment of the mole, they took no 
prisoners. The Germans had immediately re- 
tired from the outlying defenses and contented 
themselves with dealing out death from their 
machine-guns on the shore. Indeed, they were so 
absorbed in watching from that point of vantage 
the annihilation of the presumptuous madman that 
the object of the raid was actually accomplished; 
the three block ships were successfully placed in 
the channel, a submarine was blown up in just 
the right place to destroy the viaduct that con- 
nected the mole with the shore, and the greater 
part of their brave crews were rescued. A lead- 

280 



THE CHIVALRY OF THE SEA 

ing German paper, in commenting on the affair, 
said: "It would be foolish to deny that the British 
fleet scored a great success through a fantastically 
audacious stroke in penetrating into one of the 
most important strongholds over which the Ger- 
man flag floats." 

And so it was by sublime audacity and sub- 
limer courage and faithfulness that the mariners 
of England kept at their task of keeping the seas 
until the hour of victory struck. 

The day came when the German admiral ap- 
peared before Admiral Beatty to make arrange- 
ments for the formal surrender of the entire Ger- 
man Navy. "You understand that we are driven 
to this," he said. "Hunger leaves no choice.' ' 
Then he presented a document which stipulated 
that the crews should be kindly treated. 

"Tell them they are coming to England; that 
will be enough," said Sir David Beatty, tearing 
the document through as he looked full into the 
other admiral's eyes calmly, yet with a flash in 
his own, "like a North Sea storm." 

On the day of the bloodless, inglorious surren- 
der the German ships steamed out at last from 
their hiding — unscarred, unhonored, and unsung, 
and delivered themselves up to the victors. 

281 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

"I always told you," said Admiral Beatty, in 
acknowledging the resounding cheers of his 
happy mariners, "I always told you they would 
have to come out." 



282 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 
PRESIDENT WILSON 



I do not believe that it was fancy on my part that I heard 
in the voice of welcome uttered in the streets of this great 
city and in the streets of Paris something more than a per- 
sonal welcome. It seemed to me that I heard the voice of one 
people speaking to another people, and it was a voice in 
which one could distinguish a singular combination of emo- 
tions. There was surely there the deep gratefulness that the 
fighting was over. 

Back of us is the imperative yearning of the world to have 
all disturbing questions quieted, to have all threats against 
peace silenced, to have just men everywhere come together for 
a common object. The peoples of the world want peace and 
they want it now, not merely by conquest of arms, but by 
agreement of mind. 

Woodrow Wilson: Speech at Guild Hall, London, 
December 28, 1918. 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

From the very beginning of the terrible con- 
flict between nations that we call the Great War, 
President Wilson was the champion of peace. 
He was no less that champion when he armed and 
led his people into battle than he was when he 
kept them ont of war. In the dazzling moment of 
victory, when it was perhaps even more difficult to 
see clearly and act wisely than in the dark hour 
of struggle, he was still the voice of one crying 
peace. 

But because this champion is a man of differ- 
ent stature from his fellows he has been an 
enigma both to his followers and his opponents. 
"To be great is to be misunderstood"; and per- 
haps the most bitter part is the inevitable misun- 
derstanding of those who acclaim one master and 
guide, while giving no heed to the true meaning 
of his message. The voice of the champion of 
peace was lost at times in the clamor of the pacif- 
ists of various sorts. 

I think we touch the heart and core of the diffi- 
285 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

culty when we see that President Wilson is a 
thinker. That is to say, he is fundamentally dif- 
ferent in his reactions from the mass of men, who 
live by instinct and feeling. Thought is too la- 
borious a process for most of us, who have either 
to work hard for a living or still harder to keep 
ourselves happy and contented. The many will 
always live by the light of the thought of the few. 

It is not, however, as reason that new ideas win 
men. It is only as thought is translated into life 
and feeling that it has power. Then the truth 
seen by the few leavens the whole mass and be- 
comes the practical wisdom of the crowd. 

The story of the champion of peace is the his- 
tory of a man who had thought deeply on the vital 
concerns of his nation suddenly thrust into the 
position of world leader at a time when tradi- 
tions and landmarks were swept away by the 
overwhelming cataclysm of the most terrible war 
that mankind had ever known. It is only as we 
realize that he was facing the changing world 
as a thinker at a time when most people were so 
swayed by intense feeling that it was impossible 
to see things from more than one angle, that we 
have any key to the meaning of his leadership. 

Those who have attempted biographical studies 
286 



THE CHAMPION OP PEACE 

of Mr. Wilson are agreed that the thing of most 
significance in the preparatory stage of his ca- 
reer was an article on "Cabinet Government of 
the United States," which he wrote for a leading 
review in 1879, the year he received his A. B. de- 
gree from Princeton. This paper, a carefully de- 
veloped discussion of some eighteen pages, was 
remarkable both for the foundation of solid schol- 
arship on which it rested, and for its comprehen- 
sive grasp and original thought. We know of 
many instances where talent or genius outstrips 
at a bound those who have toiled through long 
years of effort, but it is usually in some field where 
intuition and inspiration furnish the wings. It is 
seldom that youth distinguishes itself by its 
breadth of knowledge coupled with power of indi- 
vidual observation and analysis. 

We find it, moreover, worthy of note that this 
paper written in his undergraduate days was a 
sort of preliminary sketch for the volume "Con- 
gressional Government: A Study in American 
Politics," published several years later. This 
analysis of legislative procedure by the House 
of Eepresentatives, the Senate, and the executive, 
with particular attention to the part played by 
Congressional committees, is not only important 

287 



FIGHTEES FOE PEACE 

in itself, but as it throws light on Mr. Wilson's 
habits of thought and his policies as President. 
We see, first, that he was willing to devote years 
of patient study to one subject; and, second, 
that, in so far as possible, he worked out in prac- 
tice the things that he had presented in theory. 

It is also significant that he spent nearly thirty 
years in his preparatory studies before he en- 
tered upon his work as a professor of history and 
political science ; and this, in turn, was but a fur- 
ther period of preparation for his original, ad- 
ministrative work as an educator and statesman. 
Only a man used to proceeding by the slow, sure- 
footed way of deliberate, reasoned thought would 
have been content to go forward so painstakingly, 
waiting for the fullness of time for results. 

Is it not strange that this President, who was 
above all else a man of peace, who asked for noth- 
ing but the chance to work out constructive plans 
for the betterment of our financial system, labor 
conditions, and the conservation of our national 
resources, should have been from almost the be- 
ginning of his term compelled to grapple with the 
problems of war? It was as if Fate said, "The 
time has come when your nation must be proved 
not in aloofness, but as a sharer of the fortunes 

288 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

of other nations." In the days when the makers 
of the republic talked about avoiding ' ' entangling 
alliances," the oceans that swept the coasts of 
America did, indeed, mean separation and pro- 
tection. But modern discoveries and inventions, 
with changed conditions of commerce, competi- 
tion, and means of aggression, have compelled a 
new policy. It is no longer possible for a nation 
to live or die unto itself. As different peoples 
won civilization when they realized that coopera- 
tion must supplant the law of the jungle, so now 
the various nations were to learn that they were 
of one kindred, and that only as they succeeded 
in working out their salvation through mutual 
forbearance and friendliness could the race of 
men endure. 

Mr. Wilson at once made it clear (as he had pre- 
sented the matter in his "Congressional Govern- 
ment") that it was possible for a President to be 
in effect a prime minister, initiating and directing 
a definite plan of legislation as active, responsi- 
ble head of his party, instead of leaving the con- 
trol to irresponsible, but all-powerful, commit- 
tees in Congress. The new order of things was 
inaugurated and symbolized by the way in which 
he revived the early practice of Washington and 

289 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

Adams in appearing before Congress and deliv- 
ering his messages in person, instead of sending 
more or less perfunctory documents to be read 
by the clerk. When Jefferson, who was not par- 
ticularly happy as a speech-maker, set the prec- 
edent of written messages, the gulf between the 
legislative and executive branches of our gov- 
ernment was definitely widened, and the defects of 
our system, as compared with the English democ- 
racy, where responsible executive heads are a part 
of the deliberative body, became in time more and 
more marked. 

As we have seen, Mr. Wilson fully realized this 
defect in the way the check and balance system, 
as planned by the framers of the Constitution, 
had been altered in the practical working of our 
government, and he was determined to be a pre- 
mier President, and insure an efficient, construc- 
tive handling of the promises laid down in his 
party platform. 

"You have to admire the President for his stub- 
born courage if for nothing else," said a fair- 
minded opponent of the administration. "And 
when you consider that he is living up literally 
to principles he has held for some forty years 
you must admit that he has had time to form an 

290 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

opinion. If the members of Congress had read 
and marked his * Congressional Government,' 
they might have been less amazed by his 'czarism' 
as they call it. ' ' 

For the feeling grew in the legislative branch 
of the government that its prerogatives were be- 
ing more and more usurped by the executive. 
Members of the President's party were given defi- 
nite instructions as to their proper action; when 
some dared to oppose him and to obstruct im- 
portant measures, their constituencies were in- 
voked in the name of loyalty to the administra- 
tion not to return the rebellious member. It was 
said that the President was maintaining the dis- 
cipline of a strict schoolmaster. Certainly he 
held the whip hand, and by sheer force of will suc- 
ceeded in putting through an extraordinary 
amount of important legislation, despite the 
clamor of sectional interests. Those who had de- 
clared that the Democratic party was so lacking in 
coherence of policies and principles that they 
could never carry through any really constructive 
program were put to confusion. 

But in the meantime the breach between Con- 
gress and the President widened. He was re- 
spected or feared by all; he was understood by 

291 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

none. Even those who came into close touch with 
Mr. Wilson (and that was a privilege accorded to 
few) frankly admitted that they did not under- 
stand him. 

A sentence or two which Mr. Wilson once wrote 
of Mr. Cleveland as President would seem to 
throw some light on his own attitude. "A cer- 
tain tough and stubborn fibre is necessary (in a 
President), which does not easily change, which 
is inelastically strong.' ' This " tough and stub- 
born fibre" was the more easily preserved be- 
cause of Mr. Wilson's remoteness from personal 
contacts that might have subjected it to strain. 

"To Washington the closed gates of the White 
House symbolize the President," says Maurice 
Low, in his biographical study. "The White 
House seems a place of mystery as great as Mr. 
Wilson himself . . . Seldom does the President 
ask any one to break bread with him. Even with 
the members of the cabinet there is almost no 
real intercourse. They transact their business 
with him, they see him as necessity or occasion de- 
mands, but intimacy does not exist. Mr. Wilson, 
after five years in the searchlight of a hundred 
million curious and inquisitive people, remains as 

292 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

remote, as unknown, as elusive a personality as if 
he belonged to another sphere." 

But the President's aloofness is itself a symbol. 
It is the outward sign of an inward difference 
that sets him apart from the mass of men. That 
difference, as has been already indicated, is the 
keynote to his character. "He is a straight 
thinker, ,, said a man whom circumstances had 
brought in close touch with Mr. Wilson in recent 
years, "and straight thinking is so rare that it 
mystifies. Most men do not think, and the few 
who do have muddy thoughts. The President 
thinks straight, and his thoughts are clear." 

Most people were certainly mystified by the po- 
sition Mr. Wilson took in face of the anarchy in 
Mexico. "Why doesn't the United States step 
in and clean up that plague spot at our border, 
and safeguard the interests of Americans and 
American business?" it was asked. The Pres- 
ident was accused of weakness and indecision 
when he refused to adopt a policy of intervention 
to protect by force of arms the commercial ad- 
venturers whose enterprise had led them to cast 
in their lot with the Mexicans. 

"Have not the European nations," said Mr. 
293 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

"Wilson, " taken as long as they wanted and 
spilled as much blood as they pleased in settling 
their affairs, and shall we deny that to Mexico 
because she is weak? No, I say. I am proud to 
belong to a great nation that says, 'This country 
which we could crush shall have as much freedom 
in her own affairs as we have. ' ' ' 

Mexico, however, had no basis for understand- 
ing the nature of this toleration, which seemed to 
spell weakness (as it did to many in America), 
and her deliberate aggressions made it necessary 
for United States troops to enter that unhappy 
country. But after brief terms of occupation 
they were withdrawn, since the President stead- 
fastly refused to make any difficulties a cause of 
war. 

"I have faith that democracy will in spite of 
everything win its way, ' ' he said. ' l The stronger 
nation can afford to be patient. We are, per- 
haps, finding a chance of proving to the peoples 
of Central and South America that we stand for 
peace, and for the right of each nation, great or 
small, to free, unmolested development. ' ' 

The President's policy in the Philippines also 
showed his faith in democracy, and made for 
peace. The desire of the islanders for a larger 

294 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

measure of home rule was granted by replacing 
the Philippine Commission by an elected, repre- 
sentative body, and the guardian nation definitely 
put on record its pledge "to withdraw its sover- 
eignty over the Philippine Islands and to recog- 
nize their independence as soon as a stable gov- 
ernment can be established therein.' ' 

From the very beginning of his administration, 
Mr. Wilson had to deal with these perplexing for- 
eign problems. The Mexican question had al- 
ready reached a critical stage when he came into 
office. Feeling ran high. American lives had 
been taken; American property had been de- 
stroyed. Some strong action should be taken. 
War? Well, it might not come to that, but we 
should make the power of the United States felt 
in no uncertain way. The policy of "watchful 
waiting ' ' was an exasperation. 

"The President has no policy. He is an oppor- 
tunist, steering no straight course, but depending 
on the wind of circumstance, ' ' it was said. So the 
President's faith and patience were read by many 
w T ho could see the Mexican situation only from 
the angle of American problems and prejudices. 

Have we not now the key to Mr. Wilson's at- 
titude towards the European tragedy? Can we 

295 



FIGHTEKS FOR PEACE 

not understand in some measure even that strange 
appeal to the people to be neutral in the face of 
what many saw was a life or death struggle be- 
tween freedom and ruthless autocracy? 

"The United States must be neutral in fact as 
well as in name," he wrote, "during these days 
that are to try men's souls. We must be impar- 
tial in thought as well as in action; must put a 
curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every 
transaction that might be construed as a prefer- 
ence of one party to the struggle before another. 

"Shall we not resolve to put upon ourselves 
the restraint which will bring to our people the 
happiness and the great and lasting influence for 
peace we covet for them?" 

Probably only to the President, champion of 
peace, and one who was accustomed to acting in 
accordance with the dictates of reason, not feel- 
ing, was such a neutrality possible. 

America was, however, even less prepared for 
war in thought than in armies and munitions. 
The world it knew was built on foundations of 
peace and freedom for all. One could not even 
conceive the new order. Mr. Wilson, whose whole 
soul and every habit of thought cried out against 

296 




i [ / 

HI I * / 



© Underwood & Underwood 



WOODROW WILSON 

President of the United States 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

the appeal to force in the settlement of difficulties, 
saw only that the United States among all the 
nations must have the faith and the sanity to 
keep in the way of peace. For her own sake and 
for the saving help she might one day give to the 
stricken peoples of Europe, she must avoid en- 
tangling alliances. 

He himself must face the situation soberly, tak- 
ing time to weigh every factor. He saw that he 
had the responsibility of acting as guide and trus- 
tee to a divided nation. There were those — peo- 
ple for the most part in the Eastern States — who 
had formed the habit of looking in thought and 
sympathy across the Atlantic, who were stirred 
to the depths by the plight of Belgium and 
France, and who were convinced that civilization 
itself was threatened. Then there were the Ger- 
man-Americans, as they were called, some five 
million people born in Germany and Austro-Hun- 
gary, together with nine millions of German pa- 
rentage. Between these two camps were those 
who for some reason — prejudice due to crude or 
false history teaching, or Irish sympathies — were 
hostile to England. German propaganda, more- 
over, was ceaselessly at work to foster suspicion 
of Great Britain and so to remove the chance of 

297 



FIGHTEES FOR PEACE 

understanding and alliance between the two great 
English-speaking democracies. It must also be 
remembered that those who had suffered through 
Eussian oppression, the Jewish and Polish immi- 
grants, for instance, were antagonistic to the 
Allies. Many Americans were, indeed, more or 
less suspicious of Eussia, and all had been brought 
up to think only good of Germany. These facts 
must explain the various shades of opinion and 
prejudice that clouded the vision of well-meaning 
people in the early days of the war. The Pres- 
ident saw the country divided into these distinct 
classes, and he saw a very large number from 
among all groups who were so content with the 
sudden tide of prosperity that the needs of the 
warring countries had brought to business of ev- 
ery kind that they asked only for a continuance 
of peace and the opportunity for profit. Surely 
neutrality was the only safe, the only possible 
course. 

In the early days of the war, however, it was 
soon evident that nothing more than an impersonal, 
official neutrality could be preserved. American 
enterprise, sorely tempted by the price Germany 
was willing to pay for certain products, felt re- 
sentment against the British blockade which in- 

298 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

terfered with profits. On the other hand, Amer- 
ican lives were lost by the piratical methods of 
German submarine warfare. We have heard it 
said that " money talks," but that "dead men tell 
no tales." It would seem as if for a time public 
sentiment in America gave point to these cynical 
proverbs, since more feeling was apparently 
aroused by the business losses than by the crimes 
of Germany. Carefully neutral notes of protest 
were sent to both powers, which had no effect ex- 
cept to produce irritation in the countries con- 
cerned. To England, who was using the legiti- 
mate weapon of siege against her enemies, it 
seemed that America thought only of the profiteer- 
ing opportunity that the war gave. To Germany, 
helpless in the toils of the blockade, Americans 
were also a vulgar, profit-loving people, who were, 
moreover, guilty of the infamy of furnishing muni- 
tions to her enemies. 

In her impotent fury she threw aside all regard 
for the laws of nations and of humanity. Work- 
ing through the Germans in America, she plotted 
to destroy factories carrying contracts with Great 
Britain, and her crimes on the seas culminated in 
the sinking of the Lusitania, a great, floating ho- 
tel, filled with passengers belonging for the most 

299 



FIGHTEES FOE PEACE 

part to a neutral nation. But the German tor- 
pedo that mangled this unarmed ocean liner, and 
sent it in a few minutes to the bottom, with twelve 
hundred innocent victims, did a greater, a more 
deadly work, of which those who celebrated the 
" triumph' ' in Berlin little dreamed. "All peo- 
ples — and the cowardly, dollar-loving Americans 
in particular — will think twice now before they 
defy the might of our Fatherland," exulted the 
disciples of "f rightfulness." 

It was indeed a "shot heard round the world," 
but somehow people did not quail and crouch as 
the Germans had anticipated. With all their 
science and philosophy, how little they understood 
other nations and the springs of human action! 
Even indifferent and unthinking people were now 
aroused to a realization of the German menace. 
The mobilization of America began at that mo- 
ment. 

All eyes were turned to the President. Con- 
sciously or unconsciously, the people of the nation 
were crying out for a leader. Even those who 
had acclaimed the champion of peace chiefly on 
the negative count that ' i he kept us out of war, ' ' 
felt that there must be in this crisis some strong 

300 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

expression of the outraged heart and conscience 
of humanity. 

For a day or two the President was silent. 
Then, in speaking to a meeting of newly natural- 
ized citizens in Philadelphia, he simply repeated 
a message that he had voiced on many other oc- 
casions in regard to the duty of Americans as a 
people with a mission : 

"The example of America must be a special 
example,' 9 he said. "The example of America 
must be the example not merely of peace, because 
it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the 
healing and elevating influence of the world and 
strife is not. There is such a thing as a man be- 
ing too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a 
nation being so right that it does not need to con- 
vince others by force that it is right.' ' 

Nothing could illustrate more completely the 
aloofness of the President from the natural feel- 
ing of people than this speech. When they asked 
for the bread of counsel and guidance he gave 
them this stone of self-righteous preachment ! 

It is easy, too, to understand the effect the one 
phrase, "Too proud to fight," had, when it was 
flashed over the wires to England and France, 

301 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

countries who were giving their life-blood that 
freedom might not perish from the earth. If 
they did not say, " Those insufferable, dollar- 
serving Yankees actually have the effrontery to 
flaunt their selfishness as superiority!" it was be- 
cause they were speechless with indignation. 

It is clear, however, that this "blazing indis- 
cretion,' ' as one biographer of Mr. Wilson calls 
the "Too proud to fight' ' speech, illustrates not 
only the President's remoteness from the emo- 
tional reactions of his fellows, but also his preoc- 
cupation with his own train of thought. Looking 
before and after, can we not understand what he 
was trying to say to the people? America must 
testify to a faith in peace as the healing of the 
nations. A man can have such entire confidence 
in his cause that he feels it does not rest with his 
puny strength to establish it. He knows that the 
foundation principle of the universe, the law 
"that preserves the stars from wrong," is on his 
side. Can he not then be sure of the victory? 
Why should the unconquerable soul feel that it 
must rely on the weapons of flesh? 

We cannot doubt that Wilson, the thinker, was 
striving to drive home some appreciation of this 
truth at a time when he saw that America must 

302 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

soon join the ranks of those who were fighting for 
peace. For he knew that Germany was surely, 
relentlessly, bringing the war to America, as she 
had to the democracies of Europe ; and he felt that 
it must be his task to prepare his country to meet 
the stress of that time worthily, by fighting with 
all that was in her for a just peace. Never for a 
moment did he lose his hold upon the faith that 
peace was the only basis for the life of the nation 
as for the individual, but his speeches now 
sounded a new note of warning that all must stand 
ready to keep the peace by defending the right 
against ruthless might. 

"We are peculiar in this," he said, "that from 
the first we have dedicated our force to the serv- 
ice of justice and righteousness and peace. But 
do you not see that, in guarding the honor of the 
nation, I am not protecting it against itself, for 
we are not going to do anything to stain the honor 
, of our own country. I am protecting it against 
things that I cannot control, the action of others. 
And where the action of others may bring us I 
cannot foretell. You may count upon my heart 
and resolution to keep you out of the war, but 
you must be ready if it is necessary that I should 
maintain your honor." 

303 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

It was only too evident to those who were in 
a position to know something of what lay behind 
Germany 's moves that she had consented to abate 
her terrorism on the seas merely to gain time 
while equipping herself with new and improved 
submarines. The President had every reason to 
believe that, as soon as she felt herself fully armed, 
she would once more defy America, the rights of 
neutral nations, and the laws of humanity. On 
the eve of that day, however, he made one last 
effort to lead the war-weary peoples to a perma- 
nent peace. 

Addressing the Senate on January 22, 1917, he 
said in effect: Have not all, through suffering, 
come to a point where there can be a mutual agree- 
ment to forego immediate triumph for the great 
victory to all mankind that a permanent peace 
would mean — a peace based not on "balance of 
power, but a community of power V Each side 
says that there is no desire to crush the other. 
Why not now come together and make that real 
by declaring for a " peace without victory," a 
stable, forward-looking peace that rests on the 
principles, first, of the right of all peoples great 
and small to their own national life, and a govern- 
ment deriving its authority from the consent of 

304 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

the governed ; and second, a league of free nations 
to adjust and settle differences, hence "the mod- 
eration of armaments, which makes of armies and 
navies a power for order merely, not an instru- 
ment of aggression or of selfish violence !" 

Not even the President's "Too proud to fight" 
speech was more unpopular than this "Peace 
without victory' ' plea. To the Germans, who 
were confident of an early, sweeping success, it 
was only taken seriously as it seemed an indica- 
tion of weakness. To the Allies, who had fought 
a hard fight for two and a half years against ter- 
rible odds, it seemed an unthinkable compromise 
with the forces of death and destruction. Only 
with the evasive pacifists, who seized as their 
slogan of the moment, "Peace without victory," 
did the speech find welcome. And to the Pres- 
ident, who knew that the peace for which he was 
pleading, like all precious things, could only be 
won through travail and sacrifice, this unthinking 
acclaim must have been bitter, indeed. 

This speech was the brave attempt of an ideal- 
ist to lead the way to a practical application of the 
moral principles governing the lives of right- 
minded individuals and nations, to international 
problems. Surely that was at once idealism and 

305 



FIGHTERS FOR PEACE 

common sense. Could civilization itself survive 
another such struggle, where the tooth-and-claw 
method was reinforced by the diabolic contriv- 
ances of modern science? 

The President's plea was also a last effort to 
win Germany from her faith in the gospel of force 
and the divine right of the strongest, before 
sounding the call to arms. Never again would the 
chance for a peace by treaty be hers. When 
America was convinced that only in terms of force 
would her protests against aggression and in- 
humanity be heeded, there could be no end but 
that of unconditional surrender. 

On January 31, 1917, when Germany announced 
her renewal of the submarine warfare, in effect 
closing the seas to the ships of neutral nations, the 
President at once severed diplomatic relations 
and asked Congress for authority to declare "a 
state of armed neutrality' ' existing against Ger- 
many. This meant arming merchant- ships and 
taking all precautions possible to protect Amer- 
ican lives and American commerce. "I hope," 
he said, "that I need give no further proofs and 
assurances than I have already given throughout 
nearly three years of anxious patience that I am 
the friend of peace and mean to preserve it for 

306 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

America as long as I am able. I am not now pro- 
posing or contemplating war or any steps that 
lead to it. I believe that the people will be willing 
to trust me to act with restraint, with prudence, 
and the true spirit of amity and good faith that 
they have themselves displayed throughout these 
trying months. ' ' 

Only a man who had thoroughly convinced the 
American people that he had used every possible 
honorable means of keeping peace could have led 
a united nation into war. But when war was seen 
to be inevitable there were no half-way measures. 
America, convinced at last that force was the 
only language that would be understood, could 
use " force, force to the utmost, force without 
stint or limit" in order "to make the world safe 
for democracy.' 9 

In addressing the extra session of Congress on 
the evening of April second, President Wilson 
said in conclusion : 

"It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful 
people into war, into the most terrible and disas- 
trous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be 
in the balance. But the right is more precious 
than peace, and we shall fight for the things that 
we have carried nearest our hearts, for democracy, 

307 



FIGHTEES FOR PEACE 

for the right of those who submit to authority 
to have a voice in their own governments, for the 
rights and liberties of small nations, for a univer- 
sal dominion of right by such a concert of free 
people as shall bring peace and safety to all na- 
tions and make the world itself at last free. ' ' 

From the beginning, when the President de- 
clared for the principle of universal liability to 
service as the only democratic and efficient means 
of assembling an army, to his final determined 
stand with the Allies for unconditional surrender, 
the champion of peace stood for a vigorous pros- 
ecution of the war — force to the utmost. But it 
was always a forward-looking struggle, because 
never for a moment did he allow the people to 
lose sight of the great goal. 

"The great fact that stands out above all the 
rest," he said in his Flag Day address, "is that 
this is a people's war, a war for freedom and jus- 
tice and self-government amongst all the nations 
of the world, a war to make the world safe for 
the peoples that live upon it and have made it 
their own, the German peoples themselves in- 
cluded. 

"For us there is but one choice. We have 
made it. . . . Once more we shall make good with 

308 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

our lives and fortunes the great faith to which we 
were born, and a new glory shall shine in the face 
of our people." 

Striving to put the nation's purpose into con- 
crete form, Mr. Wilson, in an address to Con- 
gress on January 8, 1918, laid down his famous 
"fourteen points" on which a just and lasting 
peace might be founded. ' * An evident principle, ' ' 
he said, "runs through the whole program I have 
outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peo- 
ples and nationalities, and their right to live on 
equal terms of liberty and safety with one an- 
other, whether they be strong or weak." The 
fourteen planks that the President held out for 
the building of a peace platform were at once 
the subject of query and debate. That was 
surely their purpose, to make people consider 
the question of proper material and the need of 
building. Also was it not with that purpose in 
mind that details and methods of adjustment were 
left for time to determine? But the cardinal 
principles of justice to all peoples and a guarantee 
of "their right to live on equal terms of liberty 
and safety with one another" through the forma- 
tion of a protective league of nations shone out 
like beacon lights. 

309 



FIGHTERS FOE PEACE 

Among the earnest and straight-thinking pacif- 
ists there were those who voiced the fear that in 
the intoxication of victory, America might be- 
come enamored with her own prowess and, for- 
getting her true mission, enter into competition 
with the other nations for power through arma- 
ments. And President Wilson, feeling that the 
moment of triumph was a time of testing no less 
critical than the hour of battle, decided to cast 
aside precedent and prejudice and go to confer 
face to face with those who would have the task 
of arranging the terms of peace. 

"It must be as the prime minister, not as the 
chief executive of my nation, that I take part in 
the deliberation," he said to Premier Clemen- 
ceau. 

We may perhaps find an indication of the pos- 
itive influence of the champion of peace with kings 
and leaders as well as with the people of the Al- 
lied nations in these words with which the King 
of Italy welcomed him to Eome : 

"Italy and America entered together into the 
war through a rare act of will, ' ' said King Victor 
Emmanuel; "they were moved by the purpose 
to concur with all their energies in an effort to 
prevent the domination of the cult of force in the 

310 



THE CHAMPION OF PEACE 

world; they were moved by the purpose to re- 
affirm in the scale of human values the principles 
of liberty and justice. They entered into war 
to conquer the powers of war. Their accomplish- 
ment is still unfinished, and the common work 
must still be developed with firm faith and con- 
stancy for the purpose of effecting the security 
of peace.' ' 



311 



THE ROOTS 
OF THE WAR 

By William Stearns Davis 

In Collaboration with William Anderson and Mason W. Tyler 

This book undertakes to outline the circumstances that made possible 
Germany's inconceivably daring attempt to achieve at one, or, at most, 
two or three ruthless and gigantic strokes of the sword, the establishment 
of a world empire, an Empire of Teutonia, indescribably vaster, richer, 
more universal than that of imperial Rome. 

President Wilson, himself a historian, has said: "You can explain 
most wars very simply, but the explanation of this war is not so simple. 
Its roots run deep into all the obscure soils of history." 

It is to discover some of these roots and their fateful growths that 
this book was written. It covers especially the period from 1870 to 1914, 
with background references of course to preceding European history. 

The authors say in their preface : "By general consent the period of 
history which ended in 1914 saw its beginning in 1870 when the Prussian 
militarists won their original triumph over France, thereby establishing 
a precedent for the use of armed force as a wise supplement to flagging 
diplomacy, a precedent that was to be applied with incalculable effect upon 
a much greater field of action forty-four years later. During this interval 
a great many national and international forces were acting simultaneously 
which all together helped to produce the climax of Armageddon." 

12mo, 400 pages, 6 maps 
Price $1.50 

At All Bookstores TUP fTNTITPV C(\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by *"Ei ULlllUIVI \AJ. New York City 



HEROINES OF 
SERVICE 

By Mary R. Parkman 

This book consists of a set of brief, crisp narratives, which may be read or 
told in about twenty minutes, presenting vividly the struggle for achievement 
and the triumph in service, along various lines, of heroines who have fought 
their fight in the earnest, modern way. Each narrative is not merely a chronicle 
of facts and events, but a vital, clearly visualized human story that is not 
only absolutely authentic and interesting in itself, but also significant in its 
relation to some important phase of modern effort and the life of to-day. 
Though intended primarily for young folk, these articles will be found equally 
interesting and inspiring to adult readers. For they are written with the 
true literary touch and a spirit of illuminating appreciation. Moreover, the 
book is sure to be eagerly welcomed by schools and libraries — in which there 
has been a great and increasing demand for brief biographies relating to 
leaders of thought and action in our time. 

Following are some of the characters vividly set forth in the book: Mary 
Lyon, Clara Barton, Frances Willard, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Shaw, Mary 
Antin, Mary Slessor, Madame Curie, Jane Addams, Alice C. Fletcher, Alice 
Freeman Palmer. 

12mo, 292 pages, 16 illustrations 
Price $1.50 net 

At All Bookstores TUC TCWTITDV PA 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by InEi IXmUKI LU. New York City 



HEROES OF 
TO-DAY 

By Mary R. Parkman 

This book consists^of a set of brief, crisp narratives, which may be read 
or told in about twenty minutes, presenting vividly the struggle for achieve- 
ment and the triumph in service, along various lines, of heroes who have fought 
their fight in the earnest, modern way. Each narrative is not merely a chronicle 
of facts and events, but a vital, clearly visualized human story that is not 
only absolutely^authentic and interesting" in itself, but also significant in its 
relation to some important phase of modern effort and the life of to-day. 
Though intended primarily for young folk, these articles will be found equally 
interesting and inspiring to adult readers. For they are written with the 
true literary touch and a spirit of illuminating appreciation. Moreover, the 
book is sure to be eagerly welcomed by schools and libraries — in which there 
has been a great and increasing demand for brief biographies relating to 
leaders of thought and action in our own time. 

Following are some of the characters vividly set forth in this book: — 
John Burroughs, John Muir, Wilfred Grenfell, Robert F. Scott, Edward 
Trudeau, Bishop Rowe, Jacob A. Riis, Rupert Brooks, Herbert C. Hoover, 
Samuel Pi^rpont Langley, George Washington Goethals, etc. 

12mo, 296 pages, 16 illustrations 
Price $1.50 net 

At All Bookstores TUE rCWTITDV Cf\ 353 Fourth Avenue 
Published by IMC IXlllUlVl \AJ. New York City 



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